2015 Baseball Tourney: Texas Southern 4, Grambling St. 1
SWAC.org
Box Score • Tournament Central
NEW ORLEANS, La. – Texas Southern University defeated Grambling State 4-1 in their first semifinal game of the 2015 Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament. TSU (29-17) and Grambling (11-38) play one more game to determine who sees Southern University in the championship Sunday at 2 p.m.
Texas Southern struck first. Zach Howell crushed the first pitch of his at bat over the right field wall to lead off the second inning and give TSU the 1-0 lead. It was his fourth homer of the season.
The score remained the same through the fourth. Texas Southern put two more across in the fifth. Horace Leblanc singled up the middle to get things started and moved to second when Blake Hicks was hit by a pitch. The pair advanced on a sac bunt from Joel Rosario. Zach Welz then singled to up the middle to score Leblanc.
When Brennan Williams hit the next batter to load the bases, Creighton Hoover moved to the mound. Chris Scroggins bunt singled to third to score the second run of the inning on a squeeze play.
Grambling State would respond in the bottom of the sixth. Back-to-back singles on the right side and a walk loaded the bases. Romero stepped up and struck out the next two batters. But a throwing error by Hicks led to the Tigers first run coming across.
They remained down 3-1 and could not find another rally, eventually falling 4-1. The win for Texas Southern forced a second semifinal game. The winner will play Southern in the SWAC baseball championship Sunday at 2 p.m.