Texas Southern University concluded its baseball season on May 23 after a 6-4 defeat to Southern at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
The game began with Southern scoring five runs in the first inning, putting Texas Southern at an early disadvantage. Despite collecting eight hits and drawing seven walks, Texas Southern was hindered by four defensive errors, three of which resulted in unearned runs.
After falling behind 5-0, the Tigers responded in the third inning when Elijah Rodriguez scored on a sacrifice fly from Nate Lopez. Anthony Ruiz added another run with an RBI sacrifice fly, narrowing the gap to 5-2. Ruiz continued his efforts in the fifth inning with an RBI single that brought Christopher Chavez home and reduced the deficit to two runs.
Southern extended its lead to 6-3 in the seventh inning after taking advantage of two more Texas Southern errors. In the eighth inning, Shaun Williams delivered an RBI single that scored Tanner Marek for Texas Southern’s fourth run. Byron Robinson singled with two outs in the ninth to bring up the tying run, but Caleb Ellis of Southern ended the game with a strikeout.
Chavez and Ruiz led Texas Southern offensively with two hits each; Ruiz also drove in two runs. Williams contributed one RBI and Rodriguez scored once for TSU. Dalton Alford provided strong relief pitching for Texas Southern after a difficult first inning by throwing 3.2 scoreless innings and recording three strikeouts.
The loss brings Texas Southern’s final record for the season to 21 wins and 24 losses.
