CLEVELAND, Miss. – For the first time this season the University of North Alabama baseball team was swept in a double-header, falling 8-4 and 18-10 at Delta State. 
UNA entered the day leading the Gulf South Conference with an 11-4 league record, followed by Delta State at 10-5. The Lions are now 16-12 overall and 11-6 in the GSC. UNA had won each of its previous five GSC series this season.
 
North Alabama took an early 2-0 lead in the opener and the game was tied 4-4 before a DSU rally in the eighth gave the Statesmen the win.  In the nightcap, UNA led 3-0 and 6-5 but the Statesmen scored in six of their seven at bats to roll to the 18-10 win.
 
In the opener, UNA got two runs in the second inning when Drake Tucker scored on a double-steal and a Ben Cooley RBI-single drove in Peyton Sockwell. The Lions and starter Tyler Joyner held that lead until the bottom of the fifth inning when DSU pushed four runs across the plate.
 
North Alabama tied the game in the top of the sixth when Logan Carter and Kyle Hubbuch both scored on errors.
 
The Statesmen scored four more runs in the bottom of the eighth, including a two-run home run from Zack Shannon.
 
Joyner (7-1) took the loss for UNA, allowing eight runs on seven hits with six walks and two strikeouts. Dylan Stewart pitched two-thirds of an inning and allowed one hit and hit one batter.
 
In game two, Hubbuch had an RBI-single in the first inning and Sockwell followed with a two-run single to make it 3-0. The Statesmen answered in the bottom of the inning with five runs off UNA starter Lane Wallace, including a grand-slam off the bat of Josh Russell.
 
Hubbuch's three-run homer in the top of the second put UNA back on top 6-5 but it was short-lived. DSU scored four runs in the bottom of the second and added one in the third, two in the fourth and six in the fifth.
 
UNA got two runs in the fourth on a Drake Tucker single, one in the fifth on a Logan Carter sacrifice fly and one in the seventh on a solo homer by Ben Cooley.
 
Wallace (2-3) took the loss for UNA. He allowed eight runs, five earned, in just one inning. He gave up three hits, walked two and hit three  batters. Stewart pitched two and two-thirds innings, allowing four runs on three hits. Bradley Bailey was touched for six runs on six hits in one and a third innings and Jonathan Cook pitched a scoreless sixth inning.
 
The Lions and Statesmen play the final game of the series tomorrow at 1 p.m.