BOX SCORE

COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Prairie View A&M hung with No. 5 ranked Texas A&M for five innings, but the Aggies pulled away from from the Panthers with a four-run fourth inning as Prairie View lost a 10-1 decision in College Station Tuesday night.

Panthers starter Steven Lunsford went four innings against Texas A&M and held the Aggies within striking distance. The right-hander threw 81 pitches and had four strikeouts before coming out in the bottom of the fifth with a strained back muscle.

“I had to pull him out of the game,” Prairie View A&M coach Waskyla Cullivan said. “I told him to give me one more inning in the fifth...He went out there, pulled a muscle and I had to sit him.”

The Panthers went on to surrender four runs in the in the fifth and went from a 2-1 deficit in the top of the fifth after a Stef Hernandez RBI single to trailing 6-1 in the bottom of the inning.

Cullivan said he was proud of how his team kept the game close against the fifth-ranked team in the nation, but now the focus must turn to Texas Southern. Prairie View A&M will host Texas Southern Saturday at 1 p.m. in their SWAC opener at Panther Field.

The Panthers dropped a 7-1 game to Texas Southern on Feb. 18 in the MLB Urban Invitational. The players definitely had this game circled on their calendars.

“The kids are ready to go and are excited about it,” Cullivan said. “The advantage that we have is that we did play against them. We know what to expect. We're ready to show them what we're capable of. They're probably coming in feeling good about themselves because of the way they beat us on opening weekend. We have been playing great. I challenged the guys to win the series. That's the goal for this weekend.”