By Curtis Ford, Grambling State AD for Athletic Communications
Grambling State kept close with No 2 seed Florida A&M for much of the contest, but couldn’t withstand a middle innings surge by the Rattlers, falling 14-4 in the 2025 Southwestern Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament on Thursday night at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.
The loss sent the Tigers to the loser’s bracket to face arch-rival and seventh seeded Southern in a Friday afternoon elimination game.
GSU (24-27) registered 12 hits and committed one error. FAMU (32-23) picked up 13 hits.
Cameron Hill and Shannon Martinregistered three hits apiece, while Chris Marcellus drove in three runs while going 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles.
GSU starting pitcher Trent Shaw had a short outing, allowing one two runs on one hit in 0.1 innings. He fanned a batter a walked four.
Relief pitcher Hampton Phillips settled things for the Tigers, surrendering three runs on two hits in 3.2 innings of work. He retired 11 straight batters before giving up his first run in the fourth inning. He struck out one batter.
Trailing 2-0 in the top of the fifth inning, Grambling State cracked the scored on a sacrifice fly by Chris Marcellus.
Florida A&M responded with four runs in the bottom of the fifth to go 6-1 to take control of the contest.
With GSU behind 11-2, Marcellus drove in two more runs with a two-RBI double to wrap up the scoring for the Tigers.
Up Next
No. 5 seed Grambling State faces No. 7 seed Southern in an elimination game on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 12 p.m. at Rickwood Field and will be streamed on the SWAC Digital Network (YouTube). The winner of that contest will advance to take on FAMU at 6 p.m.