Nine-Run Seventh Allows Devils To Run-Rule Wildcats, 12-2 In Seven

Box Score

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Mississippi Valley State University baseball program turned a precarious 3-2 lead into a laugher, pushing across nine runs in the seventh to tame the Wildcats on the road, 12-2 in seven.

Mississippi Valley notched its tenth triumph of the season, its first double-digit win season since an 11-win campaign in 2018.

Head Coach Stanley Stubbs is only two victories shy of tying Doug Shanks for the most wins in his inaugural season as head coach in program history as Shanks led the Diamond Devils to 12 wins in his maiden year of 2001.

The Basics

• Final Score: Mississippi Valley State 12 | Bethune-Cookman 2

• Records: Mississippi Valley State (10-15-1, 4-10 SWAC) | Bethune-Cookman (16-21, 10-6 SWAC)

• Location: Daytona Beach, Florida – Bethune Point

• Series History: Series Tied 2-2

• Winning Streak: Mississippi Valley State (W1) | Bethune-Cookman’s Last Win: April 3, 2022 (17-13)

Mississippi Valley State Top Performers

• While the story of the game was the huge offensive outburst in the seventh, Hunter Stallings put forth a masterful performance, throwing the squad’s first complete game of the season and the first of his career over seven spectacular innings. The lanky hurler with a 70s-style haircut tied his season-high mark with seven strikeouts while allowing just two runs, three walks and four hits for his second pitching win over his 19 appearances as a Delta Devil.

• Jan Tolentino gave Valley the lead for good with a two-RBI bases loaded single in the fifth on top of an RBI walk as well to collect three ribbies in a 2-for-3 day plus a hit-by-pitch and a run scored.

• Davon Mims was the one who opened the floodgates in the seventh, clearing the bases with a three-RBI triple for MVSU’s lone extra-base hit of the day, joining Tolentino in a 2-for-3 effort but one-upping him by scoring twice.

• Chris Soeder was the only Green and White clad student-athlete with both multiple hits and multiple walks, securing two apiece.

• Narvin Booker was the fourth and final man to record a multi-hit affair while Darrien Chapman went the discipline route with a pair of bases on balls.

• Dreylin Holmes saw his ten-game hitting streak come to an end but was still able to keep his remarkable on-base streak intact, drawing two walks with one earning an RBI to bump his number to 22 games-in-a-row that he reached base safely.

Notes

• The victory was the fourth mercy-rule win for the Delta Devils this season, but its first time doing so against an NCAA Division One opponent since 2019 plus its first game with ten-plus walks in that same span (11).

• All nine hitters in the starting lineup scored at least one time, eight of them coaxed a free pass, and seven players had an RBI.

• This is the second straight game where two Devils had three runs batted in with Mims and Holmes doing so versus Alabama State while Tolentino plus Mims again drove in three on Friday afternoon.

• This was also the first conference road victory in three years as well, having dropped the past 26 contests in enemy territory.

Valley State needs just one win over the next two games to pick up a monumental series victory against the team that came into the weekend tied for second place, beginning Saturday at 1 p.m. CT / 2 p.m. local time at Bethune Point.

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