Prairie View A&M walked off the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff twice Friday afternoon to clinch the weekend series in Texas.
The UAPB baseball team lost 6-5 in the first game of the doubleheader, then 3-2 in the second.
Prairie View (19-22, 10-7 SWAC) won the first game when right fielder Michael Smith hit the ball to left center and drove home Isaac Davila from second base with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning.
The Panthers led 1-0 after the first inning, but UAPB took a 3-1 lead in the third. Prairie View tied the game in the bottom of the third, but the Golden Lions retook the lead, 4-3, in the top of the fourth. The Panthers took the lead in the bottom of the fifth when left fielder Michael Burroughs hit an RBI double to score Garrison Weiss then scored himself on an error.
UAPB (13-25, 4-13) tied the game in the seventh when catcher Edwin De La Cruz scored Gavin Terry on an RBI double. The Golden Lions had the go-ahead run on third base in the top of the ninth but couldn’t bring him home.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
Prairie View reliever Preston Allen (3-3) held UAPB to one hit and one walk in the final two innings and did not allow a run. Ben VanMaanen (0-2) went two innings before allowing his only run, the walk-off hit by Smith.
With this loss, UAPB falls to 1-9 in weekend series openers this season.
The Panthers’ game two starter, Matthew Krall, took a no-hitter into the ninth inning before Terry led off the inning with a go-ahead home run, putting the Golden Lions ahead 2-1.
Prairie View swapped Krall for Leonardo Bravo (5-1), who immediately allowed a double to Trinidad De La Garza. De La Cruz followed with a walk, and both moved into scoring position on a balk, but Bravo picked up two strikeouts and a fly ball to strand the runners.
UAPB didn’t commit an error in the first eight innings of the game and committed just one in the first game, but the Golden Lions quickly committed two in the bottom of the ninth to give the Panthers two runners with no outs.
Designated hitter Tyran Norris tied the game with a single; then pinch hitter Jordan Williams walked it off with a one-out single to left field.
UAPB had taken a 1-0 lead in the second inning on an error before Prairie View tied the game with a solo home run by Smith in the sixth.
Krall and Bravo combined to hold UAPB to two hits with nine strikeouts and two walks. UAPB starter Calvin McClendon (1-5) pitched the entire game, allowing 1 earned run on seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Prairie View, which previously swept UAPB last month, extended its lead over the Golden Lions in the standings to six games while also securing the tiebreaker. The Panthers currently sit in fourth place, the final spot in the SWAC tournament from the West Division. UAPB sits in fifth with a long way to go and must be nearly perfect the rest of the season.
The series finale is set for 1 p.m. Sunday.