Kentucky State eliminates Claflin from SIAC Baseball Tournament
Albany, Ga. — The Claflin University Panthers run toward the 2018 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) baseball championship ended at the hands of the Kentucky State University (KSU) Thorobreds 14-7 on Saturday (May 5).
It was Claflin second loss of the double-elimination tournament as the Panthers finished the season at 17-32. Claflin advanced to the third day of play by defeating Paine College and Clark Atlanta University in consecutive games on Friday (May 4).
The Panthers finished the tournament with a 2-2 record, after going 1-2 last year and 4-0 in 2016 en route to the program’s first-ever championship.
In the contest, Claflin wiped out a 3-0 lead by KSU by scoring four runs in fourth inning for the 4-3 advantage. Jalen Sprull provided two runs for the Panthers with a single to right that drove home Darrell Langston and Johnathan Parnell II. Eric McElveen then doubled down the leftfield line, driving home Sprull. Craig Hopkins closed out the scoring in the inning with a single that scored McElveen from second base.
The Panthers maintain the lead until the seventh inning where the Thorobreds offense erupted for five runs to go up 8-3.
Claflin cut the lead to 8-4 in its bottom half of the seventh on Clyde Parker run-scoring single that brought in Hopkins.
KSU added six runs over the last two innings to lead 14-6 heading into the Panthers final at bat in the ninth. Claflin manage to put a pair of runs on scoreboard in the ninth as Hopkins double bought in Sprull and McElveen scored on Parker grounder to short.
Claflin collected 13 hits in the ballgame and stranded 12 runners while committing six errors.
Hopkins was the top hitter for the Panthers, going 4-for-5 at the plate with two doubles, a triple and two RBIs. Sprull and Parker added two hits and two RBIs each for Claflin, while Grayland Fowler had two hits.
KSU was led by Brandon Story at 4-for-6 with 3 RBIs.
Torriun Towers (2-5) took the loss for Claflin, was Joe Crisp was the winner for KSU.
Story by: Claflin Athletics
