KINGSVILLE, TEXAS – After taking the first two games of the four-game series from visiting Angelo State, the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team dropped the final two games by identical 6-3 scores. The fourth-ranked Rams came from behind on Sunday to take the series finale at Nolan Ryan Field.

Each team had chances to take control of the game, but it was the Rams (18-6, 2-2) who were able to come away with a hard fought Lone Star Conference victory.

Javelina (12-5, 2-2) starting pitcher Dallas Ponder (Flatonia/Flatonia HS) was in and out of trouble in the early going giving up a run in both the second and third innings before settling down. He shut out the Rams through the middle innings and finished with a no-decision after allowing three runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out six.

The Javs trailed 2-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning, but were able to get one back. Dustin Aguilar (San Antonio/Churchill HS) led off with a single and scored on Ben Villafuerte’s (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) second double of the game.

Angelo State starting pitcher Michael Lange worked very efficiently for the Rams and did not allow the Javelinas many scoring chances. The Hoggies were finally able to get to Lange in the bottom of the seventh inning. He hit the first batter and then threw wild on Aguilar sacrifice bunt allowing a run to score and putting Aguilar on third base. Lange was pulled for Michael Weatherly who struck out the first batter he faced, but then gave up the go-ahead run on a single by Joe Tallerine (Industry/Bellville HS).

The Rams went ahead in the top of the eighth inning. Quaid McKinnon led off with a triple and Lee Neumann followed with a two-run homer. They would tack on two more runs in the ninth inning to provide the final margin of victory.

Austin Church picked up the win after pitching 2.1 perfect innings of relief with five strikeouts. Adrian De La Garza (Pearland/Dobie HS) was tagged with the loss to fall to 0-2 on the season.

The Rams pounded out 13 hits in the game with McKinnon leading the charge with a 3-for-4 performance.

Tallerine and Villafuerte each had two hits for the Javelinas. The team starts a 10-game road trip on Tuesday with a game at UT-Brownsville at 6 p.m.
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