UPDATE: Rain halts Albany State baseball elimination game in fourth inning

LAKELAND, Fla. — Friday’s first game got away quickly from Albany State, and the Golden Rams’ second game was rained out in the NCAA Division II South Regional Baseball Tournament.

After losing to Tampa 12-2 in a game that had been moved back from Thursday, the Golden Rams (28-17) were to face Mississippi College (33-16) in an elimination game Friday night. But after a second day of games beset by rain and distant threats of lightning, the nightcap was rained out before it started.

Saturday at Tigertown, the teams got four innings in before rain struck again. Mississippi College leads 4-2, with the game scheduled to resume at 9 this morning.

Tigertown, the spring home of the Detroit Tigers, is a mile away from Henley Field, where most of the tournament is being played.

Tampa (40-9) got right to work against Albany State, scoring multiple runs in each of the first four innings off right-hander Michael Reddick.

Harrison Bragg, Drew Ehrhard and Nick DeTringo homered for the Spartans, who lost two of three games at Albany State in early March.

Ehrhard collected hits in three of the first four innings and scored all three times. Catcher Danny Sirven drove in three runs with a pair of singles for the Spartans, who scored all 12 of their runs in the first four innings.

Reddick, who gave up only two hits in six shutout innings in the Golden Rams’ 3-0 victory over Tampa two months ago, was tapped for 12 runs (10 earned) on 13 hits in 3 1/3 innings.

“We were probably two pitches away from being in the ball game, and then it got away from us,” Albany State head coach Scot Hemmings said. “But we knew we had to play flawless baseball and we didn’t.”

The two plays to which Hemmings referred were a “hanging slider” that resulted in Bragg’s two-run homer in the first inning, and a wild throw by third baseman Kelvin Wimbish that helped Tampa score four runs in the fourth and put the game away.

Back-to-back singles by Riliani Familia and Nic Griggs got the Golden Rams on the board in the third inning after they had fallen behind 4-0.

Hits by Tyler Morris, Ryan McClendon and Chasen Roulhac produced another run in the eighth.

Familia had three of Albany State’s eight hits.