STEPHENVILLE, TEXAS – Texas A&M-Kingsville swept a doubleheader from Lone Star Conference rival Tarleton State on Saturday, 8-1 and 7-5.

The first game was expected to be a pitcher’s duel with Adam Aspaas (San Marcos, CA/Mission Hills HS) and Pete Perez going up against each other. The game did not turn out that way as both offenses were able to hit the ball. Fortunately, the Javelinas were able to make their hits count as eight hits led to eight runs while the Texans had 10 hits, but could only score one run.

Aspaas was in and out of trouble all afternoon for the Javelinas. He gave up three hits in the first inning without allowing a run. He allowed the first two batters of the third and fourth innings to reach without giving in. Finally, the Texans scored in the fifth inning on Blake Silguero’s solo home run and that was enough to send Aspaas to the showers with a 2-1 lead.

While Aspaas was dodging bullets, Perez was locked in except for two pitches in the second inning. James Wallace (Corpus Christi/Tuloso-Midway HS) and James Black (Spring/Klein Collins HS) each hit solo homers in the inning. Perez would not allow another hit until the seventh inning.

After Silguero’s homer cut the Hoggie lead to 2-1, head coach Jason Gonzales went to the bullpen. Adrian De La Garza (Pearland/Dobie HS) finished off the fifth inning without giving up a run and then Jeremy Flores (Victoria/Memorial HS) pitched a scoreless sixth inning.

In the top of the seventh, the Javelina bats came alive. After a one-out walk, they strung together five consecutive hits. Mario Siller’s (San Antonio/MacArthur HS) two-run single gave the team some breathing room and when it was all over they had scored seven times to take a commanding lead. Flores stayed on in the bottom half of the inning to pick up his second save of the season.

Aspaas earned the victory to improve to 6-1 on the season while Black and Ben Villafuerte (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) each had two hits.

Perez fell to 4-2 on the season giving up a season high seven earned runs. Silguero finished with three hits in the contest.

In the second game, the Javelina bats stayed hot through the first few innings and Dallas Ponder (Flatonia/Flatonia HS) had a no-hitter going through four innings.

The Javelinas led 6-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth inning, but the Texans finally got some offense going. Jared Musgrove led off the inning with a single and then Evan Robinson was hit by a pitch. After a passed ball Ryan Smith drove in both runners with a double. After a walk, Ponder was pulled and Taylor Taska (Kingwood/Kingwood HS) entered the game for the Javs. His first pitch was wild allowing Small to score. Garrett Hardey later followed with a run-scoring single to make it a 6-5 game heading to the sixth inning.

In the seventh inning, Dullnig walked to lead off the inning and moved over to third base after a sacrifice bunt and a ground out. Siller came through again with a clutch hit driving in Dullnig and giving the Javelinas an insurance run.

Dullnig recorded the final out of the sixth inning and stayed on the mound in the seventh. He allowed a one-out single in the bottom of the seventh, but was able to nail down his sixth save of the year. Ponder picked up his first win of the season. Britt Robertshaw was tagged with the loss after allowing five hits, six runs and three walks in 2.2 innings.

The Javelinas finished with eight hits in the game. Julian Duran (San Antonio/Madison HS) had two hits and drove in three while Black went 2-for-3 with two runs and two RBI’s. In addition to getting the save, Dullnig was 2-for-2 with three runs scored.

The Javelinas will go for the series sweep on Sunday at 1 p.m. for the final game of the four-game series.
####
pr12161smm