Baseball Rallies Back For Win Over Alcorn State, Martin Has Monster Day At The Plate

Texas Southern rallied back from a six-run deficit to claim a 14-10 win over Alcorn State in game two of the series on Friday afternoon after MacGregor Park.
 
For the second straight game, Alcorn State set the tone early as they recorded three hits while taking advantage of two TSU fielding errors which led to an early 2-0 deficit. Unlike yesterday, TSU would answer quickly as CJ Castillo led the bottom half off with a single followed by Daalen Adderley’s RBI double. Ron Brown’s monster shot over the left field wall tied it 2-all.
 
ASU led the second off with a homer followed by a double, walk and another double for a 5-2 lead. ASU drew a walk followed by a TSU fielding error which increased the deficit to 7-2. Another ASU two-out single upped the lead to 8-2. TSU would get a run back in the bottom half as Shannon Martin drove in Jeffry Mercado for an 8-3 margin.
 
Alexander Olivo singled in the bottom of the third and took advantage of ASU defensive mistakes as he rounded the bases after a pair of wild pitches and a balk for an 8-4 deficit. TSU kept chipping away at the lead in the fourth as Mercado doubled with one out, advanced to third on a balk before scoring on Martin’s RBI single as TSU drew within 8-5.
 
ASU responded with two runs in the sixth for a 10-5 advantage. In the bottom half, Mercado led off with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. With two outs, Adderley’s two-RBI single scored Mercado and Martin, who reached on a fielding error for a 10-7 margin.
 
TSU finally caught up in the seventh as Jalen Freeman’s RBI single drove in Chase Cromer. Martin came up big with a two-RBI double to tie the game at 10-all.
 
After taking the reins from reliever Justin Barnes in the fifth, TSU relief pitcher Adolf Castillo was solid as he shut down the ASU offense. In the eighth, TSU kicked the door in and secured its first lead of the day as Victor Molina, Cromer, Freeman and Martin had RBIs for a 14-10 lead. ASU had a one out single in the ninth but Molina threw out the runner for the second out. After giving up a walk, Castillo closed the door with a strikeout for the win.
 
Shannon Martin had a monster game as he finished 4-for-5 with five RBI and a run. Mercado went 3-for-5 with four runs while Adderley had two hits and three RBI. Freeman also had two hits, two runs and two RBI.
 
Justin Barnes and Adolf Castillo came out of the pen and combined for 10 strikeouts in 3.2 innings of action for both. Castillo (2-0) earned the win with a scoreless outing.
 
The series concludes at 2 p.m. on Saturday as the team will honor three seniors in postgame.