Albany State Golden Rams complete three-game sweep over LeMoyne-Owen

ALBANY — The sun was bright enough to fool you.

The wind was not.

It cut across Albany State West in hard, steady gusts, knocking down fly balls, pushing routine pop-ups into chaos and making 40-degree air feel like something closer to January football weather. It wasn’t a weekend built for offense.

Unless you’re the Albany State Golden Rams.

Albany State didn’t just survive the cold. The Golden Rams swung right through it, finishing off a three-game sweep of the LeMoyne-Owen College Magicians with a 15-5 win Monday after pounding out 27-8 and 11-2 victories in Sunday’s doubleheader.

Nineteen hits Monday. Nineteen more in Sunday’s opener. The wind may have been howling, but the bats were louder.

Ty Grover set the tone in the finale, collecting four hits and launching one of three Albany State home runs. Arin Chevers — the former Westover standout — and catcher Ryan Brown also left the yard as the Rams once again showed how deep this lineup can be when it’s rolling.

But if there was one performance that mattered just a little more inside the dugout, it was on the mound.

Worth County graduate Jeremiah Reddell worked four crisp, scoreless innings Monday, allowing just three hits, striking out six and, perhaps most importantly, not issuing a single walk. After missing last season following Tommy John surgery, this looked like a pitcher beginning to trust himself again.

“I was really proud of our effort this weekend,” ASU head coach Scot Hemmings said. “Today’s offensive performance showed a lot of team baseball attitudes. Jeremiah Reddell looked like his old self throwing four innings with six strikeouts. I’m excited to see him continue to find his groove.”

Sebastian Griffeth and Andrew Keown handled the rest, but by then the damage had been done.

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Sunday: Survive the Wind, Then Swing Through It

The wildest inning of the weekend came early Sunday.

The wind turned the first inning into a guessing game for LeMoyne-Owen’s outfielders. Balls off the bats of Luke Addison and Emory Stephens drifted and dipped, falling in for doubles when defenders lost them in the gusts.

Then Chip Cooper made sure there would be no debate.

The former Worth County star opened the bottom of the first with a home run over the left-field fence. Sixteen Golden Rams came to the plate before the inning finally ended. Eleven runs crossed.

Game over, essentially.

Stephens was electric, finishing 4-for-5 with two home runs and eight RBIs. Addison, Grover and Aiden Payne each drove in three runs as Albany State piled up 19 hits in the 27-8 win.

Samuel Crew earned the victory. He wasn’t quite as dominant as he was in last week’s no-hitter, but seven strikeouts in four innings was more than enough. Riley Barker and Isaiah Haygood finished it.

The second game of the doubleheader required more patience.

Former Southland Academy standout Perry Usher tripled home Chevers and Quindon Wright to get Albany State started. Cooper followed with an RBI double. LeMoyne-Owen answered with a two-run homer in the third, but that was as close as it would get.

Addison homered in the bottom half of that inning. Grover added a two-run shot in the sixth. Calvin Baker went five steady innings to earn the win, and Wright closed it out in relief.

Final: 11-2.

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Middle-of-the-Lineup Identity

Hemmings pointed to more than just box score numbers.

“Luke Addison, Mason Turner, Ty Grover and Emory Stephens performed like a middle of the lineup has to perform,” he said. “It looks like our hitters are buying in and our young guys are really progressing to take over next year when our seniors leave.”

That might be the bigger story. The runs are coming in bunches. The veterans are producing. And the next wave is beginning to show signs.

But there won’t be much time to admire it.

“We have a tall task Tuesday against a very good Georgia Southwestern team,” Hemmings said. “It will be fun to be against such a high caliber program Tuesday under the lights.”

The wind may not cooperate. The temperature may not either.

Right now, though, Albany State’s timing is just fine.