Baseball Drops Opener To Southern

A safe lead in the ninth-inning quickly evaporated and turned into an extra inning affair as Southern rallied back for an 11-9 win Friday evening at MacGregor Park.
 
TSU set the tone in the first as Alexander Olivo doubled home Daalen Adderley and Gabriel Vasquez for a 2-0 lead. Southern answered with a run in the second but TSU moved ahead 3-1 in the bottom half as RJ Coffee scored a run.
 
Jeffry Mercado and Coffee drove in runs in the third to up the lead to 6-1. Both teams traded homers in the fourth and sixth frames followed by another RBI from Adderley as TSU led 8-2 entering the seventh.
 
TSU ran into trouble in the ninth as Southern led the inning off with a walk followed by a two-run homer before TSU recorded the first out. SU followed the out with a single, hit by pitch and another walk which forced a call to the bullpen as Mateo Lamas entered in place of reliever Adolf Castillo. SU drew a bases loaded walk to get within 8-5 but Lamas struck out the next batter for two outs. However, Southern’s Nava Sanchez moved them ahead with a grand slam for a 9-8 lead.
 
TSU rallied back in the bottom of the ninth as Coffee led the inning with a single followed by Michael Goudeau beating out the ball for a single. A dropped ball on the exchange led to Coffee reaching third as he eventually scored on a fielder’s choice RBI from Jalen Jones.
 
TSU reliever Carlos Marquez entered in a relief role with one out in the 10^th and pitched two scoreless innings like his SU counterpart in reliever Enrique Ozoa.
 
In the top of the 12^th with one out and a runner on first, a TSU committed a costly error which allowed two runners in scoring position. Unfortunately, another fielding error at the next at-bat led to both runners scoring as SU led 11-9. Ozoa struck out the first two TSU batters in the bottom half before ending the game on a groundout to third.
 
Goudeau finished 4-for-5 while Coffee (3-for-5) and Olivo had (2-for-6) had multiple hits.
 
Both pitching staffs combined for 31 strikeouts as TSU’s Abraham Deleon had seven followed by four from Marquez (0-2).
 
The series resumes at 2 p.m. tomorrow for Family Weekend.