Baseball 3/7/2009 12:00:00 AM

Baseball Close, but no Cigar

KINGSVILLE, TEXAS – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team had their chances to win both of their games with Lone Star Conference rival Central Oklahoma on Saturday, but came away empty handed. The Bronchos won the first game, 4-2 and went 10 innings to win the second game, 6-5. (Game 1, Game 2)

In the first game, the Javelinas (7-13, 5-11) took an early lead on Thomas Miller’s (Las Vegas, NV/Sierra Vista HS) second inning solo home run. Freshman pitcher Chris Brown (Humble/Nimitz HS) made the lead stand up until the fifth inning.

In the fifth inning, the Bronchos (11-11, 8-8) scored two unearned runs to take the lead. In the sixth, the Bronchos took advantage of another Javelina error and scored two more unearned runs to take a 4-1 lead. Clint Straka pitched a complete game for the visitors allowing eight hits, two runs and no walks while striking out seven to earn the victory. Casey Bruns and John Bryant each had two hits to lead the offense.

Brown pitched 5.2 innings allowing seven hits, no earned runs and four walks while striking out five for the Hoggies. Miller had two hits and scored both runs while Travis Earles (Houston/Cy-Falls HS) went 2-for-3 with a double. Catcher Philip Johnson (Malibu, CA/Malibu HS) threw out 3-of-4 potential basestealers.

In the second game, the two teams traded the lead back and forth throughout the game. The Bronchos scored an unearned run in the top of the 10th to take a 6-5 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, the Javelinas put runners on first and third with one out, but Ryan Wagner stymied the last two batters to finish the game.

Wagner earned the victory while pitching 3.1 innings of scoreless relief. He allowed just one hit and one walk while striking four batters.

Once again, the Javelinas scored first as Earles hit a two-run homer in the top of the third inning, his third of the season. Pitcher Tim Jones (Lake Jackson/Brazoswood HS) cruised through the first four innings of the game allowing just one hit and one walk.

In the fifth inning, the Bronchos got to Jones for four runs. Andrew Foshee started the scoring with a two-run homer and then Ryan Schoonover drove in the other two runs with a single.

In the seventh inning, the Javelinas reclaimed the lead thanks to a Broncho error. Erik Gomez (El Paso/Socorro HS) had a two-run double and then James Brown (Corpus Christi/King HS) walked with the bases loaded to give the team a 5-4 lead.

The Bronchos tied the game in the eighth inning on a two-out run-scoring double by Kellin Sheets. UCO took the lead in the 10th inning when Luke Yost led off with a walk, went to second on a passed ball, was sacrificed to third and scored on a sacrifice fly.

Earles and Gomez each had two hits and two RBI’s to lead the Javelina offense. Jones pitched 9.0 innings allowing nine hits, five runs and two walks while striking out seven batters. Wes Callihan (Corpus Christi/Calallen HS) was tagged with the loss despite not allowing a hit or an earned run in one inning of work.

The Javelinas travel to Incarnate Word on Tuesday for a 5 o’clock start.
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