Alabama State baseball feels deja vu, eliminated from NCAA Tournament Knoxville Regional
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The feeling of deja vu is unsettling, even at the best of times. For Alabama State baseball, it's frustrating. For the second straight day at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, neither the hitting nor the pitching was up to par.
Cheers from the stands behind the ASU dugout were few and far between Saturday as the Hornets were bounced from the NCAA Tournament Knoxville Regional by Georgia Tech, 13-4.
"The emotions are 50-50 right now," coach Jose Vazquez said. "I'm happy for everything that we accomplished and, obviously, extremely sad for the situation that we're in."
Starter Austin King completed just three innings, allowing eight hits and six earned runs. Similar to the loss against Tennessee, the top five in the ASU lineup struggled, finishing 3-for-20. Alabama State finished 34-25.
Two sides of the same mound
After allowing a leadoff double to Chandler Simpson, who later scored, King appeared to have settled. Through two, he had struck out four batters. Simpson doubled again in the third, followed by a three-run homer courtesy of Tres Gonzalez. The Jackets (35-23) chased King early in the fourth.
For the second day in a row, the Hornets bullpen fared even worse. Georgia Tech added seven runs over the next four innings.
Meanwhile, Georgia Tech starter Chance Huff started shakily and grew into the game with time. Chris Lewis drove in two first-inning runs for ASU with a triple. After allowing two more base hits in the second inning, Huff retired the next 12 batters he faced, including six strikeouts. He exited the game after the seventh inning, his longest outing of the season by pitch count.
"We got on him early ... but I think he found a way to get us off balance," Vazquez said. "We had some innings where we could have capitalized and scored more runs, but he just really beared down and executed."
A weekend to forget for Corey King
The sophomore has been the Hornets' most productive bat all season. He led the team in batting average, home runs and RBIs, making his 0-for-9 and three strikeouts in the regional that much more jarring.
"He got pitched really tough," Vazquez said. "It was hard for him to get in a groove, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he's still a great player and great hitter."
Sometimes a bad day or two can flip on one at-bat, and King came agonizingly close to getting that chance in the sixth. Ian Matos went down looking with the bases loaded in a 10-3 ballgame. ASU fans were left only to imagine what could have come from King at the plate in that situation.
A foundation for the future
The NCAA Tournament has not been kind to ASU. In two appearances, the Hornets are 0-4 with two double-digit losses. It took six years to return to this stage, and the deja vu was not welcome, but the impact of winning a SWAC Tournament championship and reaching a regional was not lost on the more experienced players.
Lewis and fellow senior Jabronski Williams were most proud of what they accomplished as they played their final games for Alabama State.
"When I committed to (ASU), I told them 'I came here to win a championship,'" Lewis said. "And that's what we did. We stay positive, man."
"I'll be 50, 60 years old and never forget this," Williams said. "I'm just thankful. That's all I can say. ... We're still champions. We're going to go home and get our ring."
There is plenty to build on for next season as players like King, Hunter May and Kyler McIntosh are set to return. The end of the 2022 season will remain tough to swallow, though.
Alberto Camargo is a sports intern with the Knoxville-News Sentinel. Contact him at acamargo@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter @albaretoe.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Alabama State baseball eliminated from NCAA Tournament by Georgia Tech
