JACKSON, Miss. – The No. 2 Talladega College baseball team stays undefeated in the 2024 GCAC Baseball Championship as it uses an 11-4 victory to take down No. 5 Rust College. The Tornadoes are now 35-15 while extending their winning streak to 14 games. Rust fell to 16-32 and dropped to the loser's bracket of the tournament.

Talladega will have tomorrow off as it awaits to see who it plays in the championship game on Sunday at noon.

Trailing 2-1 heading into the bottom of the third, the Tornadoes pushed three runs across on three hits. Following a strikeout to start the inning, Victor Rivera doubled to left and then scored when Darlin Fernandez homered over the left-field wall to put Talladega up, 3-2.  After a ground out for the second out of the inning Nomar Garcia walked and later scored when Isaac Guzman tripled to dead center field to make it 4-2 before the inning ended.

For the next inning and a half, neither team scored until the bottom of the fifth when Talladega plated two runs off a home run by Garcia to push the lead to, 6-2.

Rust cut the lead to two as it scored a pair of runs in the top of the sixth but the Tornadoes answered it their half of the sixth scoring two more runs. Talladega added three runs in the bottom of the seventh to go up, 11-4

The Talladega bullpen allowed just two hits throughout the last three innings to lock down the win.

River and Fernandez combined going 6-for-8 with four RBIs, two runs scored, a double, a home run, and two stolen bases for Talladega.

Teammate Garcia finished the night going 2-for-4 with three RBIs, three runs scored, a home run, and three stolen bases.

Starting pitcher Samuel Guadamuz allowed eight hits over seven innings while allowing four runs (three earned) while striking out a game-high 13. He picked up his 10^th win (10-2) of the season.

Reliever Jack Wood allowed one hit over two innings of work while fanning one.