KINGSVILLE, TEXAS – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team opened their series against Lone Star Conference rival Central Oklahoma with a 9-3 win on Friday night at Nolan Ryan Field. (box score)

The Javelinas (11-7, 8-5) busted open a tie ball game in the bottom of the fourth inning. Ben Villafuerte (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) doubled in two runs and then scored on Chris Ballou’s (Houston/Houston Christian HS) single.

The Hogs put the game away in the eighth inning with another three run burst. They took advantage of a bases loaded walk and a two-run single by Ballou.

Senior starting pitcher David de Leon (Corpus Christi/Calallen HS) pitched 5.0 innings to earn his third win of the year. He allowed four hits, three runs and five walks while striking out five.

The Javelina bullpen was outstanding tossing 4.0 shutout innings. Nathan Humpal (Corpus Christi/John Paul II HS), Clint Brown (Red Oak/Red Oak HS) and Jonathon Escobar (Edinburg/Edinburg North HS) each pitched a perfect inning of relief. Jeremy Flores (Victoria/Memorial HS) closed out the game by striking out the side in the ninth inning. The bullpen allowed one walk and struck out eight in the game.

Offensively, the Hoggies pounded out 13 hits in the game. Villafuerte went 4-for-4 with three runs and two RBI’s to raise his season batting average to .434 on the season. Ballou went 3-for-5 with three RBI’s while Jerry Rodriguez (Canovanas, P.R./North Lake) drove in three runs. Cody Stigall (Seguin/Seguin HS) went 2-for-2 with a double and four runs.

The Bronchos (6-12, 3-10) received a pair of solo home runs from Ryan Schoonover and Derik Grimes, but that was about all the offense they could muster. Schoonover went 1-for-2 with two runs, an RBI and three walks. Josh Rolan was tagged with the loss after lasting only 3.1 innings to fall to 2-3 on the year.

The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m.
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