Albany Herald

ALBANY — Albany State junior Patrick Smith knocked in nine RBI in Saturday’s doubleheader against conference foe Benedict, which won the opener (12-7) before the host Rams rolled to a 17-3 victory in Game 2.

The Rams (16-19, 11-6) remain in second place in the conference’s East Division with just four games left in the regular season, including a rematch at 1 p.m. today at home against Benedict.

ASU took a 6-0 lead in the first inning of the opener after Smith, an outfielder from Lithonia hit a 3-run home run.

Benedict’s bats came alive in the second inning when the Tigers scored seven runs and knocked Rams starter Clifford Peterson out of the game. ASU’s only other offense in the first game was a solo home run by Allen Hardy in the third inning.

ASU starter Demonzio Stubbs went the distance in the nightcap, throwing seven innings, allowing just five hits and three runs and striking out seven. Smith was 3-for-4 with a pair of doubles and six RBI.

William Smalls, Rickey Harris and Theodore Tramontana all had two RBI.

After concluding their series with Benedict today, the Rams will finish up regular season play with a three-game series next weekend against Paine College.

ASU SOFTBALL SWEEPS BENEDICT: The Lady Rams are starting to look invincible in conference play.

ASU closed out regular season play Saturday with a sweep of Benedict and improved to 25-24 overall and 23-3 in the conference.

Albany State took advantage of eight Benedict errors to take the first game, 8-3, and the Lady Rams limited the Lady Tigers (23-19, 15-11) to just four hits in the second game to win, 5-1.

With the wins Saturday, the Lady Rams will now be the No. 1 seed in the conference tournament, which starts Thursday in Columbus.