BATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Southern head coach Roger Cador glanced at the postgame boxscore and found the one stat certain to doom even the most talented baseball squads."We just left to many men on base," said Cador. "We left 12 men on (base), (Texas Southern) left four. That's way too many."
Despite belting out eleven hits, including Demario Ellis' 3-hit outing, Southern stranded 12 baserunners and struck out 13 times in a 5-3 loss to Texas Southern Friday night at Lee-Hines Field.
"We had our opportunities with runners on base and we had several opportunities with less than two outs with runners on third and we didn't get them in once," said Cador.
Friday's loss marked the third time this season, Southern (15-14, 6-7) has dropped the opening game in a conference series. Ellis finished 3-for-4 with one RBI. Stephen Wallace and Cameron McGriff each added one RBI apiece.
"The one thing I told (the team), 'Forget about March in Houston,'" said Cador, referring to the Jaguars 3-game sweep of the Tigers during the opening weekend of SWAC play.
Texas Southern (15-14, 4-8) quickly erased the notion of another sweep, sprinting out to a 3-0 lead. Starting pitcher Robert Pearson held Southern at bay, pitching 5.2 innings and striking out 9 batters.
For the first three innings, Pearson retired seven batters, including four straight.
"Against the pitching we faced, the kinds of swings (we) were trying to take, the result is not going to be successful," said Cador. "We just refuse to make the necessary adjustments that it was going to take to beat that pitching tonight."
Southern will look to avoid losing its third SWAC home series of the season Saturday in a doubleheader against Texas Southern at Lee-Hines Field. First pitch is scheduled for noon.
Final Stats
COURTESY SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY ATHLETIC MEDIA RELATIONS
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