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By Ron Seibel

ALBANY — Michael Reddick and his Albany State teammates were a little miffed when the SIAC all-conference baseball team was released Wednesday.

Of the six top awards the conference issued, five went to representatives from Miles, the Western Division regular-season champion. Albany State, the Eastern division regular-season champion, was shut out.

With Reddick, the Albany State staff ace, going up against SIAC Starting Pitcher of the Year Dylan Johnson for a spot in the championship round of the SIAC Tournament, he felt he had something to prove.

The effort Reddick came up with was nothing short of a gem of a performance. The sophomore from Lee County had a complete game four-hitter, striking out seven and walking one in an 8-3 victory.

“We were a little upset with the awards the other night,” Reddick said. “We had been playing just as well. We wanted to take them on. Everybody was hyped up for this game.”

Albany State earned a spot in Sunday’s 2 p.m. SIAC championship game against Kentucky State, which beat Miles 10-3 in Saturday’s late elimination contest. The Golden Rams will have two chances to win the title, with a second game at 6 p.m. should they lose the first championship game.

Reddick was superb Saturday, carrying a no-hitter into the sixth inning. He struck four batters, but Miles only seriously threatened to score in the sixth and eighth innings.

He received quite a bit offensive help. Quantico Dodson-Williams connected on a fourth-inning grand slam for the game’s first runs, and a three-run eighth inning, highlighted by a two-RBI base hit by Trey McMillian, helped put the game out of reach after Miles loaded the bases but couldn’t score in the top of the eighth.

“We were 0-for-7 with bases loaded through the tournament and hadn’t even scratched a hit,” Albany State head coach Scot Hemmings said. “I had a little talk with them before the game about how to approach a bases-loaded situation, and lo and behold, we hit a grand slam right there.

“Quan had big hits for us all year, and he stepped up and kind of set the tempo.”

McMillian and Tyler Morris each went 3-for-5.

Miles’ only runs came in the sixth inning, with two runs scoring on Jacob Bisharat’s RBI single and a third scoring on a grounder to second.

Johnson, meanwhile, was fairly solid until giving up the Dodson-Williams grand slam. He struck out three and walked none, giving up seven hits. He left the game at the end of the fourth inning after facing 19 batters.

Kentucky State beat Claflin 14-7 in Saturday’s second game.