KINGSVILLE, TEXAS – Despite struggling on offense and defense for most of the day, the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team was able to split a pair of games against Lone Star Conference rival Central Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon. The Bronchos won the first game, 7-3 and the Javelinas won the second game, 8-6 at Nolan Ryan Field. (Game 1, Game 2)

The Bronchos (7-13, 4-11) received a solid pitching performance from Jordan Stern in the first game. He went 5.1 innings allowing eight hits, three runs and two walks while striking out six. It was his first win of the season. Kade Kauk retired the final five outs of the game to earn his third save.

The Bronchos scored the first run of the game on a solo home run by Austin Rycroft in the second inning. In the fifth inning, UCO took advantage of a Javelina error to score three runs, including two unearned runs. They finished the game with 10 hits, but only Arrow Cunningham had more than one hit in the game.

The Javelinas (12-8, 9-6) were able to score a run in the third and two more in the sixth inning. Unfortunately, they were unable to score any more runs. Tim Jones (Lake Jackson/Brazoswood HS) was tagged with the loss after allowing eight hits, four earned runs and two walks in 6.0 innings. He struck out five batters in the game. Ben Villafuerte (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) and Chris Ballou (Houston/Houston Christian HS) each had two hits for the Hogs.

In the second game, the Javelina defense and base running were poor. They committed five errors and were thrown out twice on attempted steals of third base. The Bronchos were able to take advantage of errors in the second, fourth and sixth innings to build up a 6-2 lead thanks to five unearned runs. Cunningham and Ryan Schoonover each hit home runs for UCO.

The Javelinas scored lone runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, but had left nine men on base through the first six innings. Finally, in the seventh inning the Javelinas broke through. After two outs had been recorded, Ryan Cook (Houston/Mayde Creek HS), Julian Duran (San Antonio/James Madison HS) and Villafuerte each had run-scoring singles. The Javs took the lead on a bases loaded walk to Ballou and then added an insurance run thanks to a Broncho error.

Hoggie relievers Jonathon Escobar (Edinburg/Edinburg North HS) and Jeremy Flores (Victoria/Memorial HS) pitched a perfect eighth and ninth inning, respectively. Flores picked up his fifth save of the season. Freshman Nathan Humpal (Corpus Christi/John Paul II HS) pitched two innings of relief to earn his third win of the season.

The Javelinas had 13 hits in the game. Villafuerte went 3-for-5 with two runs, an RBI and a double while Cash Barker (Spring/Klein HS) went 3-for-3, reach base five times and scored twice. Cook and Duran each had two RBI’s in the game.

Aaron Rosborough was tagged with the loss after pitching 1.2 innings and allowing five runs in relief. Cunningham went 2-for-4 with two RBI’s and two runs scored.

The Javelinas are back in action on Friday at LSC rival Eastern New Mexico for a game at 6 p.m.
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