Florida A&M baseball still hasn’t lost a Southwestern Athletic Conference series.
On Sunday, April 19, the Rattlers completed a clean sweep over the Mississippi Valley State Delta Devils at Moore-Kittles Field.
FAMU (20-17, 15-3 in SWAC) hosted and beat the Delta Devils (11-25, 7-11 in SWAC) with a 6-5 walkoff win on Friday, April 17. The Rattlers then run-ruled Mississippi Valley 14-4 in seven innings and finished the SWAC series off with a 14-8 triumph on Sunday.
The Rattlers outhit Mississippi Valley 34-24. That included William Brown having two three-run performances on Friday and Sunday.
On the mound, pitchers Tanner Walker, Garrett Workman, and Clark Lincoln earned the Rattlers’ wins over the weekend.
Next, the Rattlers will face the team they’re tied with for first in the SWAC, the Bethune-Cookman Wildcats. The Rattlers and the Wildcats will meet for a three-game series on FAMU’s Tallahassee campus at Moore-Kittles Field from Friday, April 24, until Sunday, April 26.
It will also be a SWAC Championship rematch, in which Bethune-Cookman prevailed 11-9 last May.
The teams also met earlier this season in Vero Beach during Feb. 21’s Andre Dawson Classic. Bethune-Cookman won again, 6-2.
After massive wins this season over South Florida, the defending national champion LSU, and the top-20-ranked Florida Gators, the Wildcats will be quite the matchup for the Rattlers.
As for FAMU softball, it also swept Mississippi Valley State this weekend.
The SWAC opponents met for a three-game series, with a doubleheader on Friday, and completed it on Saturday.
The Delta Devilettes were no match, falling to the Rattlers 19-2, 12-1, and 16-1. All those games were five-inning run-rule victories.
The Rattlers (26-17, 17-4 in SWAC) outhit Mississippi Valley (1-35, 0-21 in SWAC) 47-17. Multiple Rattlers had multihit performances, including a four-hit performance by Braxtyn Battle on Saturday. Amari Brown and Madison Jenkins also had three-hit performances against the Delta Devilettes.
Zoryana Hughes, Sariah Espada, and Samantha Smith all earned wins on the mound for the Rattlers.
FAMU has its last regular-season games against Troy on Tuesday, April 21, and Jackson State for the SWAC finale series starting on Friday, April 24, before the postseason starts.
The Rattlers hold on to the top spot in the SWAC East division.
Gerald Thomas, III, is a multi-time national award-winning reporter for his coverage of the Florida A&M Rattlers at the Tallahassee Democrat.
Follow his award-winning coverage on RattlerNews.com and contact him via email at GDThomas@Tallahassee.com or on the app formerly known as Twitter @3peatgee.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU baseball’s sweep over MVSU sets the stage for Bethune-Cookman
Reporting by Gerald Thomas III, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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