Golden Rams fall to West Alabama in NCAA first round

Livingston, AL- Emmanual Santos was 3-for-4 from the plate with an RBI, but the Albany State Golden Rams couldn't complete their upset bid in the first round of the 2015 NCAA Baseball South Region Tournament. ASU was tied with West Alabama heading into the seventh inning, but dropped an 11-5 decision.

With loss, Albany State falls to 20-33 overall. Fifth-ranked West Alabama, the No. 1 seed in the regional, improves to 41-9.

After a scoreless first inning by both teams, Albany State began its scoring in the top of the first inning. Santos' single down the middle scored Hector Carrasquillo for a 1-0 edge. Reise McDaniel hit a single of his own to send Jeremy Arrington to the plate. Ryan Latner joined the act with a single, and Santos came home to give the Golden Rams a 3-0 advantage.

However, in the bottom of the second, West Alabama got a two-run homer from Tanner Rainey to cut the Tigers' deficit to 3-2. UWA added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning and another one in the bottom of the fifth to take a 5-3 lead.

The Golden Rams answered the run in the top of the sixth inning. Courtesy of a Tiger error, Sable Gilliard and Arrington each scored to tie the game at five. West Alabama took advantage of some timely hits and a couple of ASU errors late in the contest to pull away.

McDaniel added two hits for Albany State. John Paul Bernard (5-5) was the losing pitcher.

The Golden Rams collected nine hits and committed two errors.

Albany State and 14th-ranked Lynn will play in an elimination game at 11 a.m. on Friday. West Alabama will play seventh-ranked Florida Tech Friday at 3 p.m.

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