KINGSVILLE, TEXAS – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team picked up a pair of hard fought victories over visiting Lone Star Conference rival Eastern New Mexico on Saturday afternoon at Nolan Ryan Field, 7-3 and 4-1.

The Javelinas (27-12, 15-8) fell behind the Greyhounds (12-29, 2-20) early on in the first game. The Hounds scored a run in the first on a two-out single by Mitch Wolfe and added two more in the second inning on a two-out, two-run single by Sam Hedrick to spot starting pitcher Brett Humphries with a 3-0 lead.

The Javelinas took advantage of a wild throw to cut the lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the second inning. However, they left runners in scoring position in each of the next two innings.

The team finally broke through in the fifth inning. James Wallace (Corpus Christi/Tuloso-Midway HS) led off with a double and scored on Julian Duran’s (San Antonio/Madison HS) pinch-hit single. Duran later scored on Ben Villafuerte’s (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) base hit to tie the game.

In the sixth inning, Humphries hit Cameron Dullnig (San Antonio/Clark HS) with a pitch to lead off the inning and was removed for a relief pitcher. After a sacrifice bunt, James Black (Spring/Klein Collins HS) drove in Dullnig with a single, but was thrown out at second. The Javelinas continued to rally as Wallace and Duran each singled and then Joe Tallerine (Bellville/Industrial HS) walked to load the bases. Villafuerte doubled in all three runs to put the game out of reach.

Adam Aspaas (San Marcos, CA/Mission Hills HS) struggled through the first two innings on the mound, but allowed just one hit over the final five innings of the game to improve to 6-2 on the season. He allowed six hits, three runs and two walks while striking out seven.

The Javelinas finished the game with 10 hits as Dullnig, Duran, Villafuerte and Wallace each had two. Villafuerte drove in four runs and had a stolen base.

In the second game, the Greyhounds took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, but the Javelinas quickly matched it in the bottom half of the inning. The Hogs took the lead in the fourth inning on a single by Taylor Taska (Kingwood/Kingwood HS).

Dallas Ponder (Flatonia/Flatonia HS) pitched well for the Javelinas although he was prone to bouts of wildness with four wild pitches. He allowed five hits, one run and two walks while striking out seven in 6.0 innings to improve to 3-1 on the year.

Dullnig came into the game in the seventh inning and things got interesting as he loaded the bases with only one out. He was able to bear down and strike out the final two batters of the game to earn his ninth save of the year, tying the school single season record. He went 4-for-5 at the plate with three runs, an RBI and four stolen bases in the doubleheader and extended his hitting streak to 16 games.

Cash Barker (Spring/Klein HS) also had a big game for the Javelinas going 3-for-3 with a run scored and a stolen base.

Andrew Martin took the loss for the Hounds after allowing nine hits, four runs and one walk in 6.0 innings while striking out four. Daniel Binz led the team with two hits.

The two teams will square off again on Sunday at 1 p.m. for the final game of a four-game series.
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