Albany State baseball falls in SIAC tournament

MACON — A week after looking like a team rounding into championship form, the Albany State Golden Rams saw their season come to a sudden and frustrating end.

Albany State, which swept Miles College in a three-game series just days earlier, was knocked out of the SIAC Tournament with back-to-back losses — falling 15-11 to Miles in the opener before dropping an 8-5 decision to Benedict College in an elimination game.

The Golden Rams finished the season 31-18, a record that reflects both their potential and the inconsistency that ultimately cost them when it mattered most.

“The same stuff hurt us,” head coach Scot Hemmings said. “We made too many errors and could not finish teams off.”

Those issues were evident throughout the tournament.

Against Miles, Albany State built an early lead and appeared in control before defensive miscues and a disastrous middle stretch flipped the game. The Golden Rams committed five errors and allowed 15 runs on 14 hits in the loss, squandering an offensive effort that included 11 runs and home runs from Luke Addison and Arin Chevers.

A day later, the same pattern surfaced again.

Albany State matched Benedict with 10 hits but was undone by five more errors in an 8-5 loss that ended its tournament run. Costly mistakes in the third and fifth innings led directly to unearned runs, and despite late opportunities — including a run-scoring hit from Addison in the eighth — the Rams could not close the gap.

Still, Hemmings made it clear the bigger picture matters.

“The record is 31-18, not a bad year after replacing 15 seniors from last year’s championship team,” he said. “We will hit the recruiting trail and try it again next year.”

The coach also took time to reflect on a senior class that helped sustain the program’s standard following last season’s title run.

“I am very thankful to our seniors who had a great career,” Hemmings said. “It was fun watching Luke Addison. He will leave ASU as one of the best players ever to put on a Rams uniform. He holds several single-season and career records.”

Addison, a Leesburg native and Terrell Academy product, again showed why he’s been the centerpiece of the program — producing at the plate even as the season slipped away.

For Albany State, the ending was not what it envisioned after a strong regular season and late momentum. But with a 30-win foundation and another recruiting cycle ahead, the Golden Rams believe the standard remains unchanged.