Southern trounces Alabama State, 14-4 behind Talbot

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 16, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:15 a.m.

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Southern University baseball coach Roger Cador went with experience over youth when choosing his starting pitcher.

Given a chance in the clutch, though, youth proved far superior Thursday night.

After senior Chris Donaby struggled, freshman Jordan Talbot came in with an amazing performance, easily his best of the year, leading SU to a 14-4, mercy-rule-shortened win over Alabama State in the first round of the Southwestern Athletic Conference baseball tournament at Lee-Hines Field.

“What about Jordan Talbot? I wanted to kick myself, because he’s the guy I wanted to start to start with,” Cador said. “He came in and was great, simply magnificent. He jammed them all night and threw a lot of strikes. He went right at them and took away that aggressiveness.”

After Alabama State, the No. 4 seed from the Western Division and a program that seldom qualifies for the tourney, took a 4-0 lead in the second inning off Donaby, Talbot (2-1) retired 15 straight, including four by strikeout, before Jovanni Fiallo reached on a two-out error in the seventh.

Talbot then got a strikeout to close the seventh and SU ended the game with three runs in the bottom of the inning.

“My arm felt awesome,” Talbot said. “The ball was coming out of my hand real well. This is the best I’ve felt all year.”

Western Division champion Southern (27-16) faces two-time defending SWAC champion PV (22-24) at 1 p.m. today at Lee-Hines Field. The teams met in the final twice in the last three years, with SU winning in 2005 and PV winning last season. SU won four of six games against PV in the regular season.

Rain Wednesday and through Wednesday night/Thursday morning forced SWAC officials to scramble and bring Pete Goldsby Field into play.

The focus Thursday was in completing the first-round games. The only one of four games to finish Wednesday was Mississippi Valley State’s 12-2 win over Grambling. Prairie View’s 15-5, seven-inning win over Alcorn State started at 4 p.m. Thursday, after being halted in the third inning for nearly 25-and-a-half hours.

Texas Southern, the No. 4 seed from the Western Division, shocked Eastern Division champion Jackson State 10-9, with three runs in the ninth, at Pete Goldsby on Thursday night.

Three games are scheduled at both Lee-Hines Field and Pete Goldsby Field today. The tournament will continue in two double-elimination brackets before culminating with a single, winner-take-all game at 1 p.m. Sunday on ESPNU.

Donaby, a starter in Western Division games before losing that job last month, struggled like he has all season. Donaby has not won a game all season.