BROWNSVILLE, TEXAS – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball won another close game on Tuesday night at UT-Brownsville, 2-1.

The Javelinas (13-5) improved to 7-1 in games decided by two runs or less on the season. It was also the 11th time this year the pitching staff has held the opposition to three runs or less.

The Javelinas fell behind in the early going to the Scorpions (23-11) who had their eight game winning streak snapped. The Scorpions got on the board in the bottom of the second inning. Matt Ginn singled to lead off the inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt before scoring on a single by K.J. Semien.

The Javelinas were unable to get anything going against UTB starting pitcher Matt Leffler through the first five innings managing only one single. In the sixth inning, Dustin Aguilar (San Antonio/Churchill HS) led off the inning with a double, stole third and then scored on Mario Siller’s (San Antonio/MacArthur HS) ground out.

The Hoggies took the lead in the seventh inning. Cash Barker (Spring/Klein HS) singled with one out and pinch runner, Julian Duran (San Antonio/Madison HS), stole second and went to third on a failed pick-off attempt. Duran scored on Chris Ballou’s (Houston/Houston Christian HS) single.

The Javelina pitching staff performed well. Freshman Ryan Benitez (New Braunfels/New Braunfels HS) pitched three shutout innings of relief allowing two hits and one walk while striking out two. Freshman Cole Foster (Katy/Taylor HS) made his first appearance of his career memorable when he picked up the win after tossing 1.2 scoreless innings. Jeremy Flores (Victoria/Memorial HS) followed with 1.1 scoreless innings to take the game to the ninth inning. Cameron Dullnig (San Antonio/Clark HS) closed out the game with a scoreless inning earning his fourth save of the year.

Leffler was tagged with the loss after allowing five hits, two runs and no walks while striking out one in 6.1 innings. Peter Maldonado led the team with two hits.

The Javelinas are back in action this weekend at Lone Star Conference rival Abilene Christian.
####
pr12139smm