Box Score

BATON ROUGE, La. – It took 12 innings and 3 ½ hours, but for the second straight day it was Mississippi Valley State coming away with a victory.

The Delta Devils (16-38) are now one win away from advancing to the SWAC championship game following a 7-6 win over defending champion Alcorn State, thanks to an RBI single in the bottom of the 12^th inning by Demetrins Bonner. Bonner’s hit allowed Allen Cheek, who singled earlier in the inning, to score the winning run.

With the win, Valley stays in the winners bracket and will face either Alcorn State or Southern on Friday at 3 p.m.

The middle of the Delta Devils’ lineup carried the load for MVSU at the plate. Billy Linney went 4-for-5 with a double while Cheek finished 3-for-6. Edmund Cheatham and Candler Thomas had a pair of hits apiece. MVSU finished with 15 hits.

Christopher Broadway (4-7), who allowed just one hit in two innings of work, earned the victory. He struck out two batters and did not allow a run. Alcorn’s Ryan Fuentes took the loss, working 4.1 innings in relief. He allowed two earned runs and scattered six hits with a pair of strikeouts.

Valley held a 4-1 lead going into the seventh inning, but the Braves took the lead that inning after scoring four runs on a 2-run single by Antolin Morales and a RBI single each from Rodney Warren and Jann Butler.

The game was tied again at 5 in the bottom of the seventh after Cheatham scored on a Seth Milliorn fielder's choice.

Cheatham played a role in tying the game again in the eighth when the junior second baseman hit a RBI single to right field.

Neither team got on the board again until the bottom of the 12^th when Bonner, a freshman who was pinch hitting for Thomas, made the biggest hit of his young collegiate career.

A win on Saturday will put the Delta Devils in the championship game for the first time since 2004.