sweeps Ala. A&M

By

ADAM DAIGLE

The Natchez Democrat

LORMAN &045; As far as Caleb Betschart is concerned, everything is kind of falling into place right on schedule.

The stretch run has begun for an Alcorn baseball team that needed to find its identity earlier in the season. The Braves had plenty of newcomers and a totally revamped pitching staff heading into a season following last year’s disappointment.

But when all three phases of the game &045; hitting, pitching and defense &045; come together, Betschart argues, the Braves are hard to beat.

Sunday’s 9-5 win over Alabama A&M was their seventh straight SWAC win and proved that point again as the Braves netted the weekend sweep.

&uot;We’re just starting to find a groove (at the plate) now,&uot; said Betschart, who drove in two runs with a double. &uot;We’ve coming together. As long as we keep getting hits, I don’t think anybody can beat us. I think we’ve still got a little work to do as far as our team and coming together, but before that Alabama State series I saw the whole team coming together.

&uot;Two sweeps in a row &045; I don’t think we’ve done that the last three years. That’s big for us.&uot;’

It puts the Braves (13-5, 18-11) in awfully good shape heading into next weekend’s series at first-place Mississippi Valley. No one is forgetting that Alcorn took two of three from Valley in Lorman as the only two losses the Delta Devils have incurred in conference.

The Braves might not have hit as well Saturday as they did in Friday’s doubleheader, but the bats came through at times to go with solid pitching and another good defensive performance.

&uot;We played real good defensively this ball game,&uot; Alcorn head coach Willie &uot;Rat&uot; McGowan said. &uot;This last ball game we didn’t play like I thought we should play. We did enough to win the game, but we didn’t hit. But we went to Pine Bluff, went to Montgomery and went to New Orleans these last two weeks. I think they just have been a little tired.&uot;

The Braves put up nine hits but gladly accepted the walks and errors from A&M, who struggled in both areas. A&M pitchers walked seven batters and hit one, while the defense had four errors.

The Bulldogs (0-18, 8-26) took a 3-2 lead in the fourth before the Braves scored three in the bottom half to take the lead for good. Each A&M error led to an Alcorn score.

&uot;We had walks and errors and didn’t get any timely hits,&uot; A&M head coach Thomas Wesley said. &uot;It’s been a long struggle for us all year. Defensively, we don’t catch the ball. We’ve made so many errors all year. We don’t catch the ball when we need to, and you’ve got to do those things. We’re last in the league in defense.&uot;

Only in that fourth inning did the Bulldogs not have an error, but that was the best inning the Braves had at the plate. After Greg White singled and Joseph Carey walked, Corey Wimberly reached on a bunt single down the third-base line to load the bases.

Derrell Tidwell walked to score White, and Betschart doubled in Carey and Wimberly for a 5-3 lead.

&uot;We got bases loaded, and I was just trying to get a hit,&uot; Betschart said. &uot;I had two strikes, and I didn’t want to strike out. I just wanted to put the ball in play. Luckily it dropped.&uot;

Yet Betschart stayed at second when A&M starter Richard Williams got Jermaine Clarke to ground out back to the mound and Kevin Gaston to strike out to end the inning.

That came after other chances in the second and third that could have really broken the game open. Larry Pierce grounded out to third to end the second with the bases loaded and also flied out to center just before Betschart’s double.

In the third Gaston was left at third when Rodney Hayes flied out to second to end the inning.

&uot;I thought we could have beaten this team a little worse,&uot; McGowan said. &uot;I felt we should have scored at least 12 or 13 runs. But a win is a win. Any given time with these teams in the SWAC, the team will whoop you. They haven’t won a conference game this season, and I didn’t want them to make history off of us.&uot;

The Braves tacked on one in the fifth, two more in the sixth and another in the eighth. Betschart doubled in the eighth and scored on a Clarke single.

The Bulldogs couldn’t put together a rally against Alcorn reliever Matt Chatwin in the final innings. The right-hander from Canada went five solid for the Braves in relief of Chris Walker to earn his conference-leading sixth save.

He gave up a run in the sixth when Antoine Ragland singled in Charles Williams and another in the seventh when Kevin Lovejoy scored on a Turner Washington sacrifice fly.

Yet in the eighth Chatwin had two runners on with no outs before getting Charles Williams and Antoine Ragland to strike out before getting a force at second to end the inning.

&uot;We had two guys on in the eighth inning and couldn’t get the bunt down,&uot; Wesley said. &uot;It’s just a microcosm of the whole year. (Chatwin) was throwing that curveball, and the guys couldn’t adjust to that. He was throwing that curveball well. He shut us down the last three or four innings.&uot;