Florida A&M Rattlers Complete Sweep of Bethune-Cookman with 5-3 Win on Sunday

TALLAHASSEE, Florida – Florida A&M (11-5, 3-0 MEAC) won its’ eighth straight game and competed the sweep of Bethune-Cookman (5-10, 0-3 MEAC) by a score of 5-3 at Moore-Kittles Field on Sunday afternoon. It marks the first time the Rattlers have swept B-CU since before 2000 and the first time the Wildcats were swept in a MEAC series in more than a decade.

FAMU starting pitcher Chase Jarrell (2-1) pitched a great game and picked up the win as he tied a career high with six strikeouts. Jarrell allowed just two unearned runs in 7.2 innings of work. Alec Wong led the offense going 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while Dylan Dillard and Cameron Johnson added two RBIs a piece.

Hunter Fillingim earned his second save of the season as he recorded three strikeouts in the ninth inning after giving up a leadoff home run.

Bethune-Cookman scored first with an unearned run in the top of the first inning. Akevious Williams led off with a single through the left side, stole second and advanced to third base on an errant throw to second before coming home to score on a sac fly from Michael Cruz for the early1-0 lead.

FAMU answered with two runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a 2-1 lead. Marlon Gibbs was hit-by-pitch and Wong singled through the right side to start the home half of the first inning. Ben Ellzey advanced both runners with a nice sac bunt and Dillard drew a walk to load the bases with one out. After Jacky Miles, Jr. popped out, Johnson drove in both Gibbs and Wong with a single to center field to give Florida A&M the lead.

The Rattlers increased the lead to 5-1 with three, two-out, runs in the second inning. With two outs, Gibbs was hit-by-pitch again, Wong singled and Ellzey walked to load the bases for the second straight inning. Dillard then came through with a two-run single through the left side, as Ellzey also was able to score when left fielder, Rakeem Quinn, bobbled the ground ball.

B-CU cut the lead to 5-2 with another unearned run in the eighth inninng. Kyle Corbin reached on a fielder’s choice and with one out came around to score as Williams ripped a single into center field. Willis McDaniel misplayed the ball, which allowed Corbin to score.

In the ninth inning, Rodriguez quickly cut the lead to 5-3 with a solo home run to lead off the top of the ninth. Fillingim was able to hold the scoring there, as he had three strikeouts in the inning to earn the save.

Wildcat starter Alex Seibold (0-3) took the loss after he allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits with two walks in 1.2 innings of work.

Florida A&M next travels to Alabama State on Wednesday, with first pitch scheduled for 5:00 PM ET.

As always, fans can follow Rattler Baseball on Twitter @BaseballFAMU and on Facebook.

Box Score

 

COURTESY FLORIDA A&M UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

Virginia State Trojans Take On West Liberty

VIRGINIA STATE vs. WEST LIBERTY GAME

WHEELING, West Virginia -- The Virginia State University Trojans men's basketball team will take on the Hilltoppers of West Liberty University on Sunday, March 13 at 5 PM.

The No. 6 seed Trojans defeated the No. 3 seed Falcons of Fairmont State, 76-66, in Round 1 to advance, while No. 2 seed West Liberty defeated No. 7 seed Concord, 90-68.

Junior guard Kevin Williams (Franklinton, NC) leads the Trojans offensively scoring 14.9 points per game. The Trojans are defensively pioneered by junior forward Elijah Moore (Yorktown, VA) recording 5.8 rebounds per game.

The Hilltoppers are offensively led Seger Bonifant averaging 24.9 points per game. Zach Grossenbacher fuels their defensive effort recording 9.7 rebounds per game.

For a full list of links and broadcasting information for the 2016 NCAA Atlantic Region Playoffs, click HERE.

Stay connected with VSU Trojans men's basketball by following Trojans Athletics on Twitter @VSUsports, or by calling 804-524-5030.

 

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VUU Lady Panthers Reach Atlantic Region Championship

RICHMOND, Virginia  (3/12/16) -- The Panthers are going to the Atlantic Region final.

Kiana Johnson scored 31 points, Lady Walker added a double-double of 14 points and 17 rebounds, and Virginia Union led for more than 35 minutes in a 75-66 win over Wheeling Jesuit on Saturday in the NCAA Division II region semifinals at Barco-Stevens Hall.

The Panthers will face West Liberty, a 68-62 winner over California (Pa.) earlier Saturday, in the final Monday at 7 p.m.

Jaila Bryant scored 18 points, and Chenelle Moore added 13 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Mountain East Conference champions.



"This was a very resilient Wheeling Jesuit team," said Union coach AnnMarie Gilbert. "They played very hard. They hit shots. They drove us to the basket. Just a nice inside-out attack, but I was really pleased with how our kids fought back.

"We were able to manage a 10-point lead early, and Wheeling Jesuit continued to chip into that lead, but I'm just really excited about how our kids fought."

Rahni Bell provided an early spark, scoring Union's first nine points, including a pair of 3s, propelling the Panthers to a 19-15 lead after one quarter.

Bell finished the game with four 3s and 17 points.

Union outscored the Cardinals 24-18 in the second quarter for a 43-33 lead at halftime. Bell and Johnson each scored 17 for the hosts before intermission. Union hit 5 of 9 3-point attempts, four coming from Bell.

Jaila Bryant led Wheeling Jesuit with 18 points, Chenelle Moore had 13, and Mariah Callen added 10. The Cardinals were 4 of 9 from behind the arc.

The lead fell to single digits for moments, but was 10 points for most of the third and fourth quarters. Union held a 60-50 lead entering the final quarter.

The Cardinals cut it to 7 with about 90 seconds left, but Union hit free throws late.

Lots of rest (Johnson and Walker played all 40 minutes Friday and Saturday), film study and a light walkthrough are what the Panthers have planned to prepare for Monday.

"Just trying to figure out how to guard (West Liberty)," said Gilbert. "Just best strategies is all we're going to be working on. The rest is just going to be lots of rest, hydration, and try to get the win on Monday night."

It will be the last game of the season at Barco-Stevens Hall for the Panthers, who are undefeated in their home building this year.

West Liberty, the No. 3 seed, received an at-large bid to the tournament after falling to Wheeling Jesuit in the Mountain East championship. 

COURTESY VIRGINIA UNION UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

VUU Advances in NCAA Tourney with 91-72 Win

RICHMOND, Virginia (3/11/16) -- The Virginia Union women are one step closer to reaching their third goal of the season.

Following CIAA Northern Division and conference titles, all that's left in the eyes of the Panthers — the top seed in the Atlantic Region — is the Division II championship.

Their pursuit started Friday with a 91-72 win over eighth-seeded Indiana (Pa.) in the first round of the NCAA Division II tournament at Barco-Stevens Hall on VUU's campus.

Three Panthers recorded double-doubles in Union's 13th consecutive victory. The team will face Wheeling Jesuit at 7 p.m. today at Barco-Stevens Hall.

Kiana Johnson scored 27 points and dished out 10 assists. Lady Walker scored 24 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Taylor White had 17 points and 17 rebounds.

Megan Smith scored 22 points to lead the Crimson Hawks.

Union's last game before Friday was Feb. 27 in the CIAA title game.

"It is just really exciting to see your team come out after almost a two-week layoff and be able to put 91 points up on the board. That was pretty impressive," Panthers coach AnnMarie Gilbert said. "The two stats that I'm more impressed with are us having 49 rebounds, 18 of them offensive, and only six turnovers.

"For a team that really has tried to balance the days that we rested and then the day we came back and prepared, I just thought our team did a magnificent job."

Indiana had 34 rebounds. VUU scored 46 points in the paint, got 24 second-chance points and 30 fast-break points. The Panthers scored 21 or more points in every quarter.

Just 2 points separated the teams after the first quarter, but the Panthers closed the second on a 16-7 run to take a 47-38 halftime lead. White already had a double-double in the first half with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Johnson had 14 points. Walker added 13 points and eight rebounds.

Smith hit 4 of 5 from the field and two behind the arc for 12 points to lead the Hawks at halftime.

Union scored 9 unanswered just before the midway point of the third to make it a 15-point game at 59-44. The Hawks cut it to 68-56 after the third, but the Panthers outscored Indiana 23-16 in the fourth for the win.

"I thought we did a pretty good job of trying to negate the hot hand," Gilbert said of the Union defense. It held the Hawks to 40.9 percent from the field and 11 of 33 from 3-point range. "Kudos to them, because they hit a lot of big shots. They played us well early on. We just withstood some of their runs and finished the game strong."

The tournament originally was scheduled to be held at the Arthur Ashe Center, but was changed to Barco-Stevens on Wednesday night due to the floor of the Ashe Center not being a hardwood court.

The last-minute change didn't affect Johnson and the rest of the Panthers. In fact, they prefer Barco, where they haven't lost all season (12-0).

"We're comfortable at home," Johnson said. "We've played here all year. We haven't lost a game here. We don't plan on losing a game here, and we love our fans."

COURTESY VIRGINIA UNION UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION

Southern is No. 16 seed in NCAA tournament, will face Holy Cross in First Four game in Dayton, Ohio

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana -- Southern will play fellow No. 16 seed Holy Cross in a First Four game in the NCAA tournament Wednesday in Dayton, Ohio.

The teams will tip off at 5:40 p.m. CDT, and the game will air on truTV. The winner will play the No. 1 seed in the West region — Oregon — at 6:27 p.m. Friday in Spokane, Washington. That game also will air on truTV.

“At the end of the day, it didn’t matter who or where,” Jaguars coach Roman Banks said. “We were just glad to see our name pop up on the screen.”

Southern (22-12) is playing in the NCAA tournament for the first time in four seasons after claiming an automatic bid by winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament championship. The fourth-seeded Jaguars edged third-seeded Jackson State 54-53 in the title game Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston. The program had been ineligible for postseason play the past two seasons because the university had submitted “unusable data” on student-athletes Academic Progress Rates to the NCAA.

“To make the NCAA tournament the first year after the ban was lifted speaks volumes about these student-athletes,” Banks said.

NCAA TOURNAMENT MEN'S BRACKET

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Hampton and the coach who called Jesus back in NCAA tournament

NORFOLK, Virginia -- One of our favorite results from a lengthy list of conference championship games across the nation Saturday came in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference where Hampton beat South Carolina State 81-69 to advance to the NCAA tournament for the second year in a row.

Nothing against South Carolina State. It had a good season and was equally worthy of the title, but Hampton coach Edward Joyner Jr. is just too much fun. He’s the kind of coach you want to see succeeding at this time of year because he seems to have a way of adding to the fun.

You might remember Joyner from last season. After his team won a play-in game in the First Four against Manhattan, he was asked in the press conference about facing Kentucky and he picked up his cell phone and pretended to call Jesus.

As he continued the gag, he asked Jesus how to handle Kentucky and Jesus apparently hung up.

So there was Joyner again Saturday in the final seconds of his team’s victory. He stalked the sidelines like a wild man who couldn’t wait to celebrate his third MEAC tournament title and NCAA trip in six years. . When the game was over and he shook hands with opponents, he climbed up on a short wall behind the bench area to pump his fist at Hampton supporters and celebrate the moment with them.

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MLB Diversity Business Summit explored the advantages of diversity

Marian Rhodes
Senior Vice President, Chief Human Resources & Diversity Officer
MLB: Arizona Diamonbacks

Rhodes earned an Accounting degree from Florida A&M University and
an MBA in Marketing from Webster University.

PHOENIX, Arizona -- Valuing diversity starts at the top was the message that Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Robert Manfred Jr. promoted at Chase Field on Mar. 8, 2016. On Mar. 9, the third and last day of the MLB Business Diversity Summit, which was held in Phoenix, Arizona, executives from various teams acknowledged past problems, focused on their visions of the future of the game, and described actions they are taking to ensure, not just the diversity of the game, but the viability of the baseball.

Common understanding is important to any cause. When asked what they thought “diversity” meant, answers from a panel of MLB executives included “inclusion,” “representative,” “balance,” and “opportunity.” Marian Rhodes, DBacks Senior Vice President/Chief Human Resources & Diversity Officer, a FAMU alumnus who played a prominent role throughout the conference, described how she does not want to do business with companies that are not diverse. Ken Hendricks, the Managing General Partner, stated that achieving diversity has to be a core principle and is a full-time job.

Seminars and panel discussions that day described how baseball is making a difference in communities and how the demographics of players, employees, contractors and fans must change to ensure the future of the game. For example, Debbie Castaldo, DBacks Vice President of Corporate and Community Impact, cited the jersey distribution plan benefitting 40,000 kids in 75 Arizona little league teams.

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