Alabama State's common goal

MONTGOMERY, Alabama - For Mervyl Melendez, it was like starting over. For the 27 players on Alabama State’s baseball team, it was unlike anything they had ever experienced.

Melendez looked at the players assembled in front of him at the start of the 2011-12 school year and thought he had the makings of a good baseball team. A former business major at Bethune-Cookman, his professors had drilled the importance of diversity into his head and that idea became the backbone of 12 ultra-successful seasons by Melendez as the Bethune-Cookman baseball coach before coming to Alabama State last June.

Ron Frost didn’t know what to expect.  He had grown up in Atlanta, played on an intercity high school team comprised of African-Americans and came from Southern Union Community College in east Alabama to play at a historically black university.

“Compared to last year, it’s totally different,” said Frost, the senior pitcher and co-captain. “The whole culture is different. “It was a quick changeover, but what really surprised me is we jelled real quick. There was never any real confrontation on the team.

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