Box Score CLEVELAND, Miss. - After being kept in check for the first eight innings against No. 4 West Florida, No. 7 Delta State rallied with a six-run ninth for the walk-off victory at Ferriss Field. The game was the first of three this weekend between the top Gulf South Conference teams in a battle for the number one seed heading into the GSC tournament.
Michael Manley (7-2) got the start for the Statesmen and went 7.0 innings with giving up five runs, only two earned. Manley added eight strikeouts and only nine hits for the no-decision.
West Florida scored a pair of unearned runs in the second inning as errors allowed runners to score. UWF added a run in the third inning as Austin Southall connected for a home run to deep right center field. West Florida furthered their advantage in the seventh inning when Cliff Covington doubled to right field to score two more runs, giving West Florida a 5-0 lead after the seventh inning.
Trevor Blocker (2-0) picked up the victory after working a pair of innings in relief while facing just six batters.
Ricky Velez ended the UWF eighth with a 3-6-3 double play off the bat of Alex Greene to retire Garrett Flynn on the play. Blocker set down the Argos in the ninth with a ground out, a pop out , and a strike out to send the game to the last half inning. Blocker had one strike out and allowed just one hit to collect his second win of the season for Delta State (33-9, 22-5 GSC).
Ben Pickard started the rally with a leadoff walk before advancing to second base on
Landon Thibodeaux's single through the left side of the infield. Alex Stevens came in from the bullpen for West Florida (31-7, 22-5 GSC)and was able to record the lone out of the inning when
Kasey Hinton reached on a fielder's choice to move Pickard to third and retire Thibodeaux.
Marc McMillian came in to pinch hit, and just as he did last week at Shorter, he delivered off the bench with a single to right field to score Pickard and move Hinton to second base.
Jordan Chovanec added to the rally with the RBI single to right center field allowing Hinton to score and move McMillian to second. After the bases were loaded with a
Will Robertson walk,
Dex Herrington singled to the opposite field to keep the bases loaded allowing McMillian to score.
West Florida made a pitching change, bringing in
Kevin Peters to face
Brent Langston with the bases full. Chovanec scored on a single to left field, leaving the bases loaded and Delta State trailing by one run with just the lone out.
Carlos Leal singled through the right side on the first pitch he saw from Peters, driving home Robertson and Herrington to cap off the dramatic comeback. The DSU rally contained six runs on six hits - the Statesmen had just five hits in the prior eight innings combined.
Chovanec went 4-for-5 with one RBI and one run scored. Leal added a 2-for-5 day at the plate with the two-RBI hit to end the game.
Delta State and West Florida will square off tomorrow for a doubleheader set to begin at 1 p.m., with recognition of the 11 members of the 2014 senior class to be held at 12:35 p.m. at Ferriss Field. The games on Saturday will also be the inaugural Military Kids Appreciation Day at Ferriss Field where children of our military servicemen and women are invited to participate in a special ceremony prior to the playing of the national anthem.
