CLEVELAND — The No. 24-ranked Delta State University baseball team earned a 16-6 win over William Carey in a run-rule shortened game Tuesday at Ferriss Field. The Statesmen (22-11) scored 16 runs on 16 hits with one error, while the Crusaders (21-12) plated six runs on 14 hits with one error.

Trey Griffin (3-0) got the Statesmen off to a fast start on the mound, keeping the Crusaders at bay in the first three innings.

Griffin’s start allowed the Statesmen to jump out to a 9-1 lead after four innings before the Crusaders tried to make a game of it in the fifth. Carey plated three-runs off Statesmen reliever Nathan Hardy in the inning to cut the DSU lead to five.

DSU answered back in the bottom of the sixth with two runs on RBIs by Matthew Little and Josh Gordon to take an 11-4 lead.

Carey scratched out runs in the seventh and eighth innings off Statesmen closer Levi Bishop to make it 11-6.

DSU added five runs in the bottom of the eighth thanks in part to Gordon’s two-RBI single to right center, Devin Goodwin’s RBI-double to center, and pinch hitter Rickey Ware’s run-rule clinching RBI-single to right to end it.

Gordon, a junior third baseman from Vicksburg, finished the day with a career-high four RBIs for the Statesmen after going 2-for-3 at the plate. Clay Sartain added three RBI, while Patrick Strack smashed his fifth home run of the season in the bottom of the third. Goodwin finished the day 2-for-2 with a pair of doubles, three stolen bases, and two runs scored.

Brandon Chretein led the Crusaders at the plate, going 3-for-4.

Griffin earned the win after pitching four innings of one-run baseball with six strikeouts.

Lance Brewer (2-2) was saddled with the loss, working one inning and giving up five runs.

The Statesmen will return to action this weekend at Henderson State University for a three-game series in Arkadelphia, Ark. Saturday’s doubleheader is set for noon, while Sunday’s game will begin at 1 p.m.  Matt Jones and Dan Hawthorne will have the call.