BATON ROUGE (Interstat) — Kameron Byrd delivered a walk-off two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning Thursday afternoon, lifting Southern to a 9-8 victory over Alabama A&M at Alex Box Stadium/Skip Bertman Field in a Southwestern Athletic Conference game.

The Jaguars improved to 22-21 overall while the Bulldogs fell to 7-42.

Alabama A&M jumped ahead early on an error in the first inning, but Southern answered in the second when Kenyon Hughes drove in Jacoby Radcliffe with a groundout. The Bulldogs reclaimed the lead in the third when Brycen Hammonds homered to left field, scoring two runs.

Southern responded with a three-run third inning. KJ White singled home Xavier Bradley, Jaylon Lucky tripled to score White, then Lucky stole home to tie the game at 3-3. Alabama A&M erupted for five runs in the fifth. Litarris Murray singled in two runs, stole second, and Zak Rice followed with a two-run single to put the Bulldogs ahead 8-4.

Southern chipped away in the bottom of the fifth, as Radcliffe singled home Ryan Hunter to make it 8-5. The Jaguars then tied the game in the seventh. With the bases loaded, Byrd singled up the middle to score Jaylon Lucky and White, knotting the score at 8-8.

Alabama A&M regained the lead in the top of the ninth when Murray homered to left center, his second hit of the game, giving the Bulldogs an 8-7 advantage. Southern mounted its final rally in the bottom of the ninth. White singled, stole second, and moved to third on a bunt single by Radcliffe, who then stole second. With two outs, Byrd lined a single to right field, scoring both runners and ending the game.

Murray finished 2-for-5 with a home run and three RBIs. Hammonds went 1-for-4 with a homer and two RBIs. Rice was 3-for-5 with two RBIs. Evan Hurlburt pitched three innings, allowing no hits and one earned run for the Bulldogs. Antonio Torres tossed two-thirds of an inning without allowing a hit, and Will Tarpley struck out three in one and one-third innings but surrendered two earned runs.

For Southern, Byrd was 2-for-5 with four RBIs. Radcliffe went 2-for-3 with an RBI and three stolen bases. White was 2-for-4 with an RBI and two steals. Genesis Prosper pitched two innings, allowing one hit and no earned runs.

The game, which began in the afternoon and extended into the evening, featured 10 hits for Alabama A&M and 11 for Southern.

Interstat’s game simulator had projected a final score of Southern 7, Alabama A&M 2, and Interstat’s ELO system gave Southern an 80.70 percent probability to win.