ITTA BENA, Miss. – Next on this year’s countdown of Mississippi Valley State’s ten most memorable wins of the 2021-22 athletic calendar is win number eight on the list as baseball scored its most runs in the past 18 seasons (2008) in a 20-6 demolition of Tougaloo College in game one of a doubleheader.
Valley only needed four innings worth of offense to reach its total, scoring nine runs in the first, three in the second, one in the third, and seven in the fourth. It was the second of three instances in which the Devils’ bats scorched at least 15 hits with six of the 16 on the evening going for extra bases (37.5%).
The Green and White set a season-best mark in a multitude of categories such as runs scored, RBI (18), doubles (4), and batting average (.640) while ranking second on the year in regard to hits (16) and stolen bases (5).
The pitching staff also showed some electric stuff with seven punchouts and only three hits surrendered in the five frames of work.
Starting pitcher Calvin McClendon earned the victory on the bump, tossing three innings of two-run, two-hit ball with five of his nine outs recorded coming via strikeout (55.6%).
Seven separate Diamond Devils logged multiple RBIs or run scored while five student-athletes contributed two hits as MLB The Show became reality at Magnolia Field.
Both Eric Johnson II and Jan Tolentino hit personal milestones, cranking out their first career home runs at MVSU with Tolentino going off for a career-best three RBIs and scoring thrice as well.
Willie Johnson saw a lot of threes in his stat line that night, going 2-for-2 with a career-best three RBIs and three runs scored plus a season-high three steals.
Treadwell Kennedy tallied his first career multi-RBI and multi-run ballgame of his career as the relative of Willie “Satellite” Totten drove in a pair with a single through the left side during the monstrous nine-run opening frame.
Four of the offense’s biggest producers on the campaign all smoked doubles as Maury Weaver, Dreylin Holmes, Darrien Chapman, and Jose Salazar-Ortega combined for seven RBIs, five runs, and three walks on top of a 0.571 batting average (4-for-7).
Kameron Spencer made his lone career pitching appearance, notching the final out of the contest for a perfect ERA of 0.00.