CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Valdosta State baseball team's push for postseason play took another hit after a pair of losses to No. 15 Delta State on Saturday at Harvey Stadium in Cleveland, Miss.
On the back of starter
Mitchell Cody, the Blazers took advantage of Cody's run of five straight scoreless innings and gained a 2-0 lead in the fourth after a two-run blast by
Jaykob Graham, which represented his second of the season and one of five hits for the Blazers off of DSU starter Dalton Moats (8-3).
Prior to the fifth, Cody retired 12 consecutive batters. And although he gave up two singles in the fifth inning, the senior managed to induce a double play and leave a runner stranded at third after striking out Colton Welch to end the threat.
The Statesmen spoiled Cody's outing in the sixth, however, after Dakota Glore reached on an error to open up the frame and Erick Santiago built momentum with an infield single. Brandon Cummins hit into a fielder's choice to place runners at the corners, and the Statesmen proceeded to string together three straight hits, the last of which was a three-run homer off the bat of Ethan Gill that gave DSU a 5-2 advantage.
Cody's day ended in the seventh when Trent Giambrone connected for an RBI double into the gap in left center field. He closed out with a line of two strikeouts and 11 hits allowed for seven runs, six of which were earned. The Statesmen finished the seventh with the final two runs of the game, which resulted in a 7-2 loss for VSU and dropped Cody to 5-4 on the year.
The Blazers racked up 10 hits in game two and converted the offensive production into four runs in the contest, but by the time VSU got the bats going late in the game, Delta State had already plated seven runs.
DSU pushed across two runs in the second, third, and fourth innings to take a 6-0 lead, before
Clint Carr ripped a double down the left field line and came across on a two-out base hit by
Chipper Andzel.
Facing a 7-1 deficit heading into the final frame, the Blazers put together a rally in the seventh that included four hits and a little bit of help by the Statesmen defense, which committed two errors in the inning.
Dalton Duty,
Tyler York, and
Marcus Sigmon made DSU pay with three consecutive RBI singles, but the hits came with two outs, and Jake Brumfield was able to end VSU's threat with a strikeout to seal DSU's victory.
Kellan Bailey suffered the loss on the hill for VSU to fall to 6-5 on the season, while Delta State's Tre Hobbs took advantage of the run support and secured the victory to improve to 10-1 on the year.
With the loss, the Blazers fell to 15-12 in conference play and currently sit at two games behind the sixth placed Lee Flames. The Blazers now hold an overall record of 24-17 on the season, while the Statesmen improved to 32-13 overall and sit in second place with a 21-8 GSC record.
The Blazers will square off against Delta State for the series finale tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. in Cleveland.
