Weatherford, Okla. – In cold, wind-blown conditions, the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelina baseball team completed a four-game series sweep of Lone Star Conference North Division foe Southwestern Oklahoma on their diamond by winning three games Saturday afternoon.
The Javelinas won the continuation of a suspended game from Friday, 10-8, then swept the regularly scheduled doubleheader 14-9 and 14-7.
A&M-Kingsville hit .354 as a team during the series, scoring 40 runs and banging out 17 extra base hits, including 7 triples while also getting a pair of complete game victories.
Local products Mario Gonzalez (Premont) and Raul Trevino (Incarnate Word) earned victories, Josh Livingston (Moody) got a save and a win and Clay Bockholt (Tuloso-Midway) hit .467 during the series with 5 RBI.
The Javelinas won the series opener Friday 2-1 thanks to a seven-inning complete game 2-hitter by former Corpus Christi Incarnate Word star Raul Trevino.
Trevino struck out six and walked just two, allowing a single in the first and a triple in the fifth to improve to 3-0 on the season and drop his ERA to a miniscule 1.50.
In game four, with the team nearly out of pitching, freshman Chris Stage went the distance, allowing 12 hits, but striking out 8 to give the Hogs their four-game sweep.
Saturday the Javelinas overcame both the elements and the Bulldogs to improve to 8-5 on the season.
“It was probably the worst weather conditions I’ve ever seen,” said Javelina head coach Russell Stockton. “The win was blowing out 40-50 miles per hour and it was really cold. The momentum went back and forth, but our guys continued to battle. Our hitters did a fantastic job.”
It all started with the completion of the suspended game, a contest the Javelinas should have won Friday.
The Hogs scored twice in the top of the seventh to take a 7-5 lead and had two outs when Jeremy Heatley struck out the final batter, but the Javelinas couldn’t hold on to the third strike, allowing the runner to reach first and eventually the Bulldogs scored two to tie the game at 7-7.
After a scoreless eighth to start Saturday morning, the Javelinas got 3 in the 9th, two on a 2-run blast off the bat of Javier Molina.
Mario Gonzalez (Premont), who stranded the potential game-winning run at second late Friday, worked a perfect eighth but allowed two runs on two hits in the bottom of the ninth before junior Josh Livingston (Corpus Christi Moody) came on and recorded a strike out and a ground out with the bases loaded to end the game and earn a save.
In game three of the series, the Javelinas banged out 15 hits, but needed solid relief pitching from Chris Delaney and a four-run seventh to put the Bulldogs away.
The Hogs led 10-5 headed into the bottom of the sixth, but the Bulldogs knocked Livingston out of the game with the score 10-8.
Delaney gave up an unearned run on an error, and then got the final out with the tying run on second.
The Hogs scored 4 runs on 3 hits in the top of the seventh on a run-scoring triple by Chase Myrick, his third hit of the day, a run scoring double by Joey Hamon, a run scoring, pinch hit triple by Jeremy Wheeler and a run scoring ground out by Molina.
Delaney then retired the Bulldogs in order to end the game.
In game four, Stage put together a gutsy effort to earn the complete game victory.
The Javelinas built an 11-3 lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.
The Bulldogs closed to within 11-5 after six innings, but the Hogs added 3 in the top of the seventh, two on a run-scoring single by Wheeler.
Stage gave up a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh, but struck out the final hitter to end the game.
The Javelinas host Cameron in a four-game series beginning Friday afternoon.
