Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
CLEVELAND, Miss. - Delta State baseball claimed the series victory in the inaugural match up versus Lee University on the baseball field.  Following the win on Friday night, Delta State lost a close one in the first game of the day, 5-3, before taking the series finale in convincing fashion, 11-1.

Michael Manley (6-1) got the start in the opening game of the day, and was dominant through the early part of the game as he did not surrender a base hit until he retired the first two batters of the fifth inning.  Andres Nelo broke up the no-hit bid with a single to left center field with Delta State already leading 2-0.
Lee got on the scoreboard in the sixth inning with a bases loaded sacrifice fly by Josh Silver that brought Nathan Wierzgac in from third to cut the DSU lead to one run, 2-1.  Lee tied the game the following inning as Jordan Stewart singled to left field to bring Zacary Hawkins home from third base.

Herrington picked up the RBI on a groundout with the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning to give Delta State a 3-2 advantage with Landon Thibodeaux scoring.  Thibodeaux started the inning off with an infield single to short stop.

Lee tacked on three more runs in the eighth off of Manley to complete the scoring for the game.  Manley suffered his first loss in two seasons as a starter for Delta State, pitching 8.0 innings giving up eight hits and five runs while striking out four and walking four more.  Trevor Blocker pitched the ninth inning to finish the game.

Chovanec went 4-for-5 with a run scored and one of three DSU stolen bases in the game.  Thibodeaux was the only other player in the lineup with multiple hits, going 2-for-4.

Jonathan Moody (6-1) picked up his fifth consecutive victory by closing out the series with another quality starting performance.  Moody took a no-hit bid into the fifth until Hawkins singled to start the inning with Lee already trailing 9-0.

In the bottom of the first inning, Delta State sent 12 batters to the plate to score eight runs on six hits.  Lee starting pitcher Derrick Pitts lasted just 0.2 innings and was responsible for all eight DSU runs.  Hinton doubled and walked in the first inning and scored each time he was on base that inning.  Picking up RBI during the onslaught were Herrington, Carlos Leal, Hunter Twitty, and Benji Sullivan.

Moody picked up four strikeouts in the second and third innings, all four with a swing-and-miss on strike three.  For the game, Moody went 6.0 innings on the mound to strike out seven batters while allowing one run on three hits and a pair of walks.  Taylor Stark came into the game in relief and pitched the seventh inning and faced the minimum batters in a non-save situation to end the game.

Delta State (24-7, 19-4 GSC) added another run to the board in the fourth inning with Leal delivering the RBI single to left center field to bring in Velez from second base.  Lee (23-15, 10-11 GSC) avoided the shutout as Hawkins scored with two outs in the fifth inning when Wierzgac singled up the middle.

Velez picked up one RBI as he reached on an error by the Flames second basemen with Chovanec and Herrington coming around to make the score 11-1.

Moody struck out his final two batters in the sixth inning, including the final batter he faced on the day.

Chovanec delivered a 3-for-3 performance with a pair of runs scored.  Leal followed suit by going 3-for-3 with two RBI and a run scored.  Twitty was the third Statesmen with three hits in the game, going 3-for-4 while scoring once and amassed two RBI.

For the series, Chovanec went 10-for-13 (.769) scoring six times while going 2-for-3 in stolen bases.

Delta State will play the next six games in non-conference action as the Statesmen travel to Young Harris (22-16) for mid-week games on Tuesday and Wednesday before heading to Southern Arkansas (29-10) for a weekend three-game series.