Delta State ends UWA’s baseball season
Published 3:24 pm Wednesday, May 8, 2013
CARROLLTON, Ga. – Delta State parlayed 16 hits and four West Alabama errors into a 10-0 victory Wednesday at Cole Field, eliminating the Tigers from the 2013 Taziki’s Gulf South Conference Tournament and ending UWA’s season.
West Alabama finishes its season with a 23-30 record. The top seed in the tournament and the sixth-ranked team in NCAA Division II, Delta State advances to Thursday’s championship game(s) with a 41-8-1 record.
Thanks in part to three West Alabama errors, Delta State scored five times in the second inning and was off to the races. Jordan Chovanec’s RBI single in the bottom of the eighth increased the Statesmen lead to 10-0 and ended the game on the run rule with one out in the bottom of the frame.
Josh Branstetter (9-2) went the distance for the DSU pitching win, scattering five hits and striking our five. UWA starter Taylor Bratton (4-6) took the loss, allowing nine hits and seven runs over 4.2 innings. Only two of the runs charged to Bratton were earned.
Josh Crowdus was 3-for-4 with three RBI, while Chovanec and Brent Langston both went 3-for-5 at the plate for Delta State. Chovancec and Sam Kidd both drove in two runs for the Statesmen.
Mitch Holgate and Joccoby Robinson had a pair of hits each for the Tigers. Holgate stole his 26th base of the year for UWA, who was shut out for the fifth time this season, twice by Delta State.