ATLANTA, Ga. – Florida A&M, in only its second year in the Southwestern Athletics Conference (SWAC), defeated fellow second- year member Bethune-Cookman 9-6 Sunday to claim the first baseball championship for the Rattlers.
Both former Mid Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) members – East 2nd-seed B-CU and East 3rd-seed FAMU, fought their way through the loser’s bracket to reach Sunday’s championship game.
After posting a 9-1 win over Texas Southern Wednesday, FAMU fell to East top seed Alabama State 9-8 Thursday to fall into the loser’s bracket. On Friday, the Rattlers got a 1-0 win over Prairie View A&M and came back Saturday to knock off Alabama State 8-4.
B-CU dropped a 4-2 decision to Southern in Wednesday’s opening round but came back to post victories over Jackson State (12-11 Thurs- day), Southern (10-6 Friday) and West top seed Grambling State (14-4 Saturday) to earn the championship berth opposite FAMU.
The Rattlers jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of the title game and was up 4-1 before B-CU cut the deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the third. FAMU added a single run in the fourth before Sebastian Greico blasted a two-run home run in the seventh inning to stretch the lead to 7-3. It was Greico’s third round tripper of the tournament.
The Rattlers added single runs in the eight and ninth frames while B-CU plated three runs for the final margin.
Greico, who set FAMU’s single-season record for home runs with 17, went 3 for 5 with three RBI in the title match. Hunter Viets won the book- end games of the tournament for FAMU. FAMU reliever Zach Morea was named MVP of the Tournament. He pitched six-and-two-thirds innings with a save in all the Rattlers’ wins.
“The SWAC competition is really good,” said FAMU baseball head coach Jamey Shouppe. “I am so happy for our guys. To do it the way we did – coming out of the loser’s bracket – it shows the heart these young men have. We’re excited about representing the SWAC in the NCAA Re- gional.”
With the win, FAMU clinches its third automatic berth in the NCAA Div. I Regional. The Rattlers were placed in the Gainesville (Fla.) Re- gional and will open up against the Florida Gators on Friday, June 2nd in the double-elimination tournament. Texas Tech and UCONN are the other teams in the Regional
SWAC ALL-TOURNAMENT
Jack Hay, ALST; Keylon Mack, Kyle Walker, GSU; Irvin Escobar, Hylan Hall, Boris Pena, Colton Olasin, B-CU; Sebastian Greico, Janmikell Bastardo, Jared Weber, Hunter Viets, Zach Morea, FAMU
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER
Zach Morea, Florida A&M