Texas Southern sweeps Grambling; will face Southern in SWAC championship game Sunday

Courtesy: SWAC.org

NEW ORLEANS -- Texas Southern had to defeat Grambling twice Saturday to reach the championship game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament.

No problem. Texas Southern, the No. 1 seed in the West Division, pounced on Grambling 4-1 and 7-4 and will face the Southern Jaguars at 2 p.m. Sunday for the title.

More important, with Southern banned from NCAA postseason play this season, TSU will represent the SWAC in an NCAA regional.

“I just had to remind the kids just who we were,” coach Michael Robertson said. “Our pitchers gave what we needed coming out of the loser’s bracket; we didn’t want to use a lot of pitchers. We played good defense and we hit the ball. We got back to being us today.”

First-game starter Larry Romero allowed two hits in 6.2 innings, and Robert Pearson, who started the second game, scattered eight hits over 8.1 innings. Texas Southern banged out 24 hits.

For TSU, Saturday also was a measure of revenge. Its only loss in the tournament was to Grambling in Thursday’s late game.

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