HOUSTON – T.J. Renda pitched seven shutout innings and Leo Rojas had a career high five hits as Alabama State beat Prairie View 9-2 Friday night in day one of the Major League Baseball Urban Invitational at Minute Maid Park.Coming off last week's no-hitter, Renda allowed four singles, walked one and struck out five. Rojas went five-for-five with three runs scored and one RBI as Alabama State improved to 5-1 on the season.
“T.J. was very, very good tonight,” head coach Mervyl Melendez said. “Again, he located his pitches, and every pitch he threw was down in the zone. Usually when a pitcher is down in the zone and hitting his spots, he's going to have a good night and you could see that from the beginning of the game. The first inning was amazing; he hit every spot that was called, and he piggybacked on that the rest of the game.”
Leading 2-0, Alabama State used a four-run fifth inning to take control of the game. With one out, the Hornets put together four straight singles, the last a Dillon Cooper RBI single to score Dexter Price to extend to a 3-0 lead. Manny Rodriguez' sacrifice fly scored Branden Castro, ahead of Einar Muniz' two-run single to right field which scored Cooper and Rojas to extend to a 6-0 lead.
Waldyvan Estrada homered in the eighth, his first of the season, one of just three extra-base hits by the Hornets as 16 of their season-high 19 hits were singles.
“It was just a matter of time,” Melendez said of his team who at one point had nine hits but just two runs. “When you're swinging the bat well, and keep making good contact, the ball will find the hole. Give credit to our guys for not getting frustrated when we weren't scoring early. It got to the point where those hits meant something.”
Rojas had one of the Hornets' three extra-base hits on a double in the second inning, and hit singles in the fourth, fifth, sixth and eighth innings as he raised his batting average 129 points to .462.
“He was amazing,” Melendez said. “Everything he hit tonight, he squared up, and even the placement of the bunt single was amazing. When a hitter is hot, all he has to do is continue to do is swing the bat. That's what he did tonight.”
The Hornets will face Southern Saturday at 4 p.m. live on MLB Network, with video streaming on MLB.com. It's another matchup between Melendez and Southern's legendary coach Roger Cador.
“Cador is one of my favorite people,” Melendez said. “As a coach, he's been a pioneer at this level and I have a lot of respect for him. We know what Southern brings. They're very talented. We just have to play our game, go out there and do the things we've been doing, and improve on things I think we need to work on.”
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COURTESY ALABAMA STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION
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