By Alan Wiederhold
HT Athletic Communications
NORTHPORT, Ala. – Huston-Tillotson University's baseball team continued its run through the 2026 postseason Monday with a 4-3 win over Wilberforce (Ohio) in the Hope Credit Union HBCU Athletic Conference Championship tournament elimination round final.
The win sends the Rams (33-17) into the tournament championship round Tuesday, when they will face Talladega (Ala.) beginning at 4 p.m. Should the Rams win that game, the teams will then play a second game a half-hour later for the tournament championship.
Tuesday's entire championship round will be streamed to the Urban Edge Network. Fans can also follow the game on HT's live stats page.
HT Rams 13, Stillman (Ala.) 3
The Rams found themselves in the elimination game championship after splitting two games Sunday. HT defeated Stillman (Ala.) 13-3 in eight innings after trailing 3-0 over the first three innings. Freshman Joseph Brown ended the game early with a three-run homerun; Jacob Perez also hit a homerun as part of a 4-for-4 outing. (HT–Stillman box score)
Senior transfer Weston Bailey, who was named the conference's Pitcher of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and a First Team All-HBCUAC honoree, struck out 10 Stillman hitters en route to eighth consecutive win in as many starts.
Talladega (Ala.) 16, HT Rams 6
In Sunday's winner's bracket championship (box score), the West Division champion Rams met the conference's East Division champion Talladega College Tornados, who slugged their way to a 16-6 win. The Rams got four RBIs from Perez and a four-hit day from Trey Garza.
The Tornados roughed up HT starting pitcher Ethan Walker for six hits over two innings; but the proverbial silver lining was that Walker was now available for Monday's game against Wilberforce.
HT Rams 4, Wilberforce (Ohio) 3
With the season on the line against the Wilberforce, one of the best hitting teams in the conference, Bryce Sanchez and Walker quieted the Bulldog bats as the pitching duo gave up only one earned run over nine innings. Sanchez pitched the first four innings and gave up two hits and two unearned runs.
Walker then made his first relief appearance of the season starting in the fifth inning, and he struck out seven batters and allowed just two hits and single run in the seventh.
Jaden Corzine tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth inning when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. The somewhat painful free pass extended Corzine's on-base streak to 15 consecutive games, though he saw his 14-game hitting streak snapped Monday.
Garza then gave the the Rams the lead in the sixth with an RBI single that scored Tucker Allen; Garza wasted little time crossing the plate as Perez immediately knocked an RBI triple in the next at-bat, giving the Rams a 4-2 lead.
Up next ...
By advancing to the tournament championship round, the Rams inked May Baseball into their schedule by claiming one of the conference's two automatic qualifying bids into the opening (regional) round of the NAIA Baseball Tournament. The Rams will be playing postseason baseball beyond their conference tournament for the first time this century.
The Rams last won a conference championship in 1998, when they won the NAIA's Big State Conference title. Back then, the NAIA was divided into clearly defined geographic regions (similar to the NCAA's Division II and the NJCAA), and the Rams would have played in the regional tournament hosted by Oklahoma City University, according to Steve Wilson, the NAIA's Director of Communications.
The NAIA now conducts its national tournament as a single entity with regional opening rounds that will sending 10 winners to its World Series in Lewiston, Idaho. As such, the Rams will be making their national tournament debut May 11 at a to-be-determined site.
– HT –
