KINGSVILLE, Texas (Baseball) – Continuing with what he has done his entire Javelina career,
Ryan Scott supplied the arm and the meat of the order provided the bats as the Hogs rallied from behind in the sixth to score four runs and take a 2-1 lead heading into the late innings. The offense continued to score, adding three runs in the seventh as Texas A&M University-Kingsville (27-21, 21-12 LSC) took game one over Tarleton State University (20-21, 13-17 LSC), 7-2, on Friday evening at Nolan Ryan Field.
With the victory, the Javelinas are currently 0.5 games ahead of West Texas A&M University. The Buffs are tied at 4-4 in the fourth. Angelo State University is trailing Eastern New Mexico University, 5-4, in the seventh.
"We needed someone who would go out and challenge the hitters and Ryan (Scott) did just that," said head coach
Jason Gonzales. "He went right after them and gave us a huge performance. Partner that with our offense coming up big late in the game and we played a good game tonight."
Scott finished with a career-high 12 punch outs to improve to 4-3 on the year in just his fourth start in a Javelina uniform. A closer for the majority of his two-year career, Scott has continued to be sensational in the rotation.
Scott struck out 10 through the game's first 6.0 innings and with one out,
Zach Smith reached on an infield single and moved to third on
Clint Wallace's double.
Cline Andrews followed with a two-run single to give TAMUK a 2-1 lead.
Hayden Vesely, who reached on a fielder's choice, stole second to put himself in scoring position and the junior came around to score on
Brayton Carlson's RBI double and
Jimmy Roche's blooper brought Carlson in from second to make it a 4-1 ballgame.
The Hogs tacked on three runs in the seventh, the second coming off the bat of Andrews, giving the senior third baseman three RBI and two hits on the evening. Vesely's triple scored Andrews as the Javelinas took a commanding 7-1 lead, scoring seven runs in two innings.
Matt Herrick (3-6) allowed four runs in 6.0 innings but was tagged with the loss despite striking out eight.
Andrews finished 2-for-4 with three RBI and Roche and Wallace added two hits.
Trey Taylor tossed the final inning as the Javelinas took game one, 7-2.
The regular season concludes tomorrow with a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m. Live stats and video will be available for both games, as will the pregame ceremony for the 10 seniors.
For full coverage of Kingsville baseball, please follow @TAMUKBaseball14 on Twitter and @JavelinaAthletics on Instagram, like our Facebook page (Javelina Nation) and subscribe to the JavelinaAthletics YouTube channel.
