Cleveland, Miss. -- No. 14 Delta State swept the Hawks in the Saturday doubleheader in Cleveland, Miss. The Statesmen took the opener 5-4, before winning the finale 6-5 in extra innings.

Despite the Hawks outhitting the Statesmen in both games, Shorter couldn't hold on for the wins; moving to 18-17 on the season and 8-15 in conference play. While, league leader Delta State improves to 28-8 overall and 18-5 in the GSC.

The Hawks took the lead early in game one, jumping out to a 2-0 lead after the second inning on RBI doubles from Raul Cortes and Bailey Gerstner. Before, extending their lead to 3-0 in the sixth when Nate Butterworth came in on a fielder's choice. Shorter then made it a 4-0 in the seventh on a single from Jack Leech.

From there, however, the Statesmen answered with a 5-run eighth inning to earn the win 5-4.

Jonathan Pintaro took the loss, allowing one run on two hits with a walk without recording an out in the eighth. Jacob Ramos made the start, allowing four runs on five hits with three walks and seven strikeouts through 7.2 innings of work.

In game two the Hawks once again jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning as Isaiah Maddela came in on a sacrifice fly from Patrick Sanderson, and an RBI single from Butterworth.

Delta State cut the lead in half in third with a run of their own. Only to have Shorter regain the two-point advantage in the fifth on an RBI single from Blaze Vazquez.

The Statesmen tied the game at three with a run in the fifth and one in the sixth. But, the Hawks answered in the seventh with two, to make it a 5-3 game on an RBI double from Leech and a single from Maddela. Delta State then tied things up on a 2-run triple from Dakota Glore in the bottom of the inning, before earning the win in the ninth on a single up the middle from Josh Russell.

Jason Gifford took the loss, allowing one run on two hits with a strikeout through two innings of relief. Jerry Liang made the start, allowing five runs – four earned – on seven hits with five walks and three strikeouts through 6.1 innings of work.

For the Hawks, eight players finished with two or more hits on the afternoon.

Shorter will look to avoid the sweep Sunday afternoon at 3:00pm ET.