CLEVELAND, Miss. – The Valdosta State baseball team came up with a clutch 10-inning Gulf South Conference road win over Delta State after scoring four runs in the final three frames to defeat the No. 15 Statesmen 8-7 in 10 innings on Sunday afternoon at Harvey Stadium in Cleveland, Miss.
With the win, the Blazers improved to 25-17 overall and 16-12 in conference play, which kept their playoff hopes alive heading into the final week of the regular season schedule. Meanwhile, the Statesmen (32-14, 21-9 GSC) fell into a second place tie with West Alabama (33-12, 21-9 GSC) behind the league-leading Argonauts of West Florida (31-13, 23-7 GSC).
After
Marcus Sigmon belted a two-run blast to knot the game up at 5-5 in the top of the eighth inning, the Blazers faced some adversity late in the game when Dakota Glore gave the Statesmen a 6-5 lead with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the same inning.
Down to their final out in the top of the ninth,
Dalton Duty smoked a clutch double into the left center field gap and
Tyler York sent Blazer Nation into a frenzy with a lead-changing homer that gave Valdosta State a 7-6 advantage.
Delta State didn't go down easily, as Brandon Cummins led off the bottom of the ninth with a walk and moved into scoring position as the potential tying run, after Trent Giambrone laid down a sacrifice bunt.
Dustin Hersey induced a pop-up off the bat of Will Robertson, but with a full count, catcher Ben Pickard slugged a game-saving double to center field to score Cummins and force a 7-7 tie.
In the tenth,
Clint Carr delivered a one-out single and, after advancing to second on a failed pickoff attempt by Pickard, came in to score the decisive run on a timely two-out single by
Ryan Slaughter.
The Statesmen loaded the bases with only one out in the bottom of the final inning, but Head Coach
Greg Guilliams called on
Troy Massaro, who came through with a pair of huge strikeouts to strand all three Statesmen and pick up his first save of the season.
Carr's clutch base hit in the extra frame represented one of three hits for the Blazer catcher on the day, and he was matched at the plate by Duty, who had three hits of his own. York and Sigmon also tallied multiple hits on the day, and Sigmon finished the afternoon with four RBI's.
Next up for the Blazers, it's the final series of the regular season, as Valdosta State travels to Florence, Ala. to make one final push for one of the six coveted positions available in the GSC Tournament. The doubleheader opener kicks off at 2:00 p.m. EST on Saturday, with live coverage available right here at www.vstateblazers.com.
