PEARL &8212; Prairie View A&M knew what it&8217;s like to be in Alcorn&8217;s shoes Sunday afternoon.

You fight as hard as you can. You give everything you&8217;ve got and more when everything is on the line. But when the end result is still disappointment, it&8217;s tough. But you can&8217;t let it get you down.

The Panthers were in a similar situation last year when they lost to Southern in the SWAC Championship. A year later they took a 3-2 win over Alcorn to claim their first title and end the Braves&8217; hopes of doing so after fighting their way through the losers&8217; bracket to get there.

&8220;You want to win when you fight that hard,&8221; said Alcorn head coach Willie &8220;Rat&8221; McGowan, who has yet to win a title in his 34 years. &8220;You look at this game, and I wouldn&8217;t trade my kids for them. I still think we&8217;ve got a championship ball club. They won it, but they&8217;re not better than us.&8221;

The win capped off a perfect run through the tournament for Prairie View, who did the same in last year&8217;s tournament until getting beat twice in the championship by Southern. It also marked one of the few times in conference this season that the Braves had trouble scoring runs.

Prairie View pitchers Wrandal Taylor and Josh Terrell combined to five-hit a team that scored 29 runs on Alabama State two days ago. Terrell was named Most Outstanding Player for the tournament.

&8220;They saw us a lot of games in the tournament,&8221; said ASU third baseman Chris Walker, who tripled in a run in the fifth. &8220;They made the adjustments. (Taylor) did a wonderful job. He did a real good job keeping us off balance. We were hitting it hard, but we just didn&8217;t get the timely hits.&8221;

The Panthers&8217; biggest key was keeping Alcorn&8217;s big sticks quiet. Caleb Betschart, Shawn Taylor, Marcus Davis, and Bradley Hubbert went a combined 2-for-14.

Davis and Hubbert, who went a combined 8-for-10 in that wild win over Alabama State, went hitless and struck out four times in eight trips to the plate against Prairie View.

&8220;I didn&8217;t want to give them anything to hit,&8221; Wrandal Taylor said. &8220;Especially with runners on base. We didn&8217;t have a good scouting report, but I just wanted to keep them off balance and let my defense work for me. I notice they were a pull-hitting team. I wanted to make them hit it the other way and make them hit my pitch.&8221;

The bottom of the order put Alcorn&8217;s two runs on the board in the fifth to break a scoreless tie. Scott Spillars lined an 0-2 pitch into center for a single, and he scored on Walker&8217;s shot that bounced off the wall in left.

Greg White&8217;s sacrifice fly to center scored Walker, but the Braves went quiet after that. Betschart singled to move Roberto Ortiz to third with two outs, but Shawn Taylor grounded out into a fielder&8217;s choice to end the inning.

Prairie View pulled Wrandal Taylor after seven, and Terrell retired the side in order in the eighth and ninth to close it out and pick up the save.

&8220;I never would have thought &8212; even if you would have told me &8212; we would have only five hits,&8221; McGowan said. &8220;We&8217;ve been hitting the ball. But today, it shows you when a pitcher is on, it can stop hitting. When they throw a slider, it goes away. That&8217;s what they were throwing to all my big boys. They never could catch up with it.&8221;

Alcorn pitchers Darryl Jordan and Matt Chatwin were nearly as solid, but the Panthers answered with two in the sixth to tie it up off Jordan and one in the eighth off Chatwin to take the lead.

This, head coach Michael Robertson said, was all worth it. Especially after coming so close last year.

&8220;I knew Alcorn would be tough,&8221; he said. &8220;They really impressed me.

&8220;This is an accomplishment from the standpoint of where Prairie View has come &8212; from worst to first. I think this is a huge, huge victory for the whole university community. You just have to believe and stay the course.&8221;