Box Score VICTORIA, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team took to the road Friday night for its first road game of the season heading to Riverside Park, but dropped a 7-3 decision to the Jaguars.

The game was knotted at zero until the bottom of the third when the Victoria struck for five runs and the Javelinas were unable to fully recover. The five runs came on four hits and two walks. Robert Zaragoza's 2-run inning capped the scoring for the Jaguars.

Three of the runs were credited to Dallas Ponder, who made his third start for the Javelinas (2-4). He walked three and permitted three in 2-1/3 innings in dropping his first decision of the season as he evens his record at 1-1. Matt Rhodes finished the third and went the next two innings. He allowed three runs on four hits and walked one while striking out three.

After UH-Victoria added a single run in the fifth, the Javelinas scored three times in their next two at bats.

In the sixth, Taylor Taska led off with a walk and went to second as Matt Perez drew a one out walk. After both advanced into scoring position on a wild pitch by starter Nathan Falkenstine, Taska came home on a sacrifice fly by Miles Holcomb. Justin Lee doubled to left-center field to plate Perez for the second run and make it a 6-2 contest.

Falkenstine earned the win to move to 2-1 for the Jaguars who are 4-7. Andre Del Bosque earned the save by tossing 2-1/3 scoreless innings of release.

Kingsville pulled to within three, 6-3, in the top of the seventh. Blake Johnson came off the bench to lead off the inning with a double and raced to third on a wild pitch. He scored on a grounder to second by Dustin Aguilar.

The Jaguars added an insurance run in the bottom of the seventh.

Kingsville threatened with two outs in the ninth as Aguilar and Derrick Walls walked. Taska went down swinging ending the game.

The Javelinas next play on Friday and Saturday when they host Texas College in a 3-game series. They will play a single game at 6 p.m. with a doubleheader on Saturday with the first game at 1 p.m.