PRAIRIE VIEW – The Prairie View A&M baseball team was unable to hold off Texas Southern during game one of the teams' Southwestern Athletic Conference series as the Panthers fell 6-4 Friday afternoon at Tankersley Field.

"We started off slow, but we had some quality at-bats in the fourth inning. We made the adjustments and scored some runs," PVAMU Head Baseball Coach Auntwan Riggins said. "However, we went backward. When you have an opportunity to control a game, you have to take advantage of it. We didn't do that today. (TSU) nickeled and dimed us and kept putting the ball in play, and we basically gave them the game. When they needed the play, they made the play. They made one more play than we did, and we have to be better in situations where we need quality at-bats."
 
How it Happened:
Down 2-0 entering the fourth inning, the Panthers surged ahead with a two-out rally. With Alex Martinez reaching via single, Brayden Johnson moved him to scoring position with a single. There, Christian Mendez tied the game by belting a double to deep center field that scored Martinez and Johnson. Tyler Gordon followed with a RBI double and after he stole third, Keanu Maldonado singled up the middle to make it 4-2 Panthers.

Texas Southern scrapped together runs in the sixth and eighth inning to tie the game, and after Johnson had a two-run homer robbed at the wall the Tigers scored two runs in the top of the ninth. Prairie View A&M was unable to answer as Kamron Field retired the side.

Martinez led the Panthers with a pair of hits. Kyle Smith scattered 11 hits and three earned runs over 7.0 innings of work, striking out seven.

Fields got the complete-game win for TSU. Oscar Ponce was 3-for-5 with three RBI to lead the Tigers' offense.
 
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