Grambling spoils Southern’s baseball opener

Courtesy Herman Shelton, SU Sports Information Assistant

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana -- Grambling kicked off the 2015 MLB Urban Invitational with a 6-1 victory over rival Southern at Wesley Barrow Stadium on Friday afternoon.

With the tournament being held in New Orleans for the first time in its eight-year existence, it appeared the two teams were going to start the invitational with an old-school pitching duel, but the Tigers (2-3) reeled off all six of their runs during the sixth and seven innings to pull away from Southern (1-1) for good.

“Even though this doesn’t count as a conference game, it’s still a huge win for us,” Grambling coach James Cooper said. “Anytime you can beat your rival in anything, you want to go out and play your best game.”

“Grambling stayed aggressive and stayed with the basic approach,” Southern coach Roger Cador said. “I would like to see our guys take some of the same approach that they did.”

Both teams went without a run for the first five innings, but the Grambling bats finally came to life in the bottom of the sixth.

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