KINGSVILLE, Texas (Baseball) – The Javelina offense started hot and remained on fire with eight runs in the first three innings and 12 total, and
Hayden Vesely recorded 15 consecutive outs en route to a shutout performance on the rubber as No. 27 Texas A&M University-Kingsville (26-13, 17-9 LSC) defeated No. 30 Angelo State University (24-16, 17-9 LSC) 12-0 Saturday afternoon at Nolan Ryan Field to take the season series 4-3.
Vesely turned in a career performance on the hill, tallying seven punchouts in a shutout to improve to 3-1 on the year. The senior allowed just two hits and a walk with the hits coming in the first and seventh innings. Stealing the show, Vesely also went 3-for-4 with six RBI from the three-hole as Kingsville collected 12 runs on 10 hits.
The victory marks the second consecutive Lone Star Conference season series win for the Hogs as Texas A&M-Kingsville took its seven-game series versus Cameron University 4-3. The win also forces a logjam atop the conference standings as the Javelinas and Rams are now tied for first. The series win gives TAMUK the tiebreaker over Angelo State should they end the season with the same conference record.
"I saw a lot of fight and energy from our guys this weekend," said head coach
Jason Gonzales. "We knew we were going to have to come out and play well against a tough conference opponent. We had some timely hitting and Hayden threw extremely well today following Preston's good outing. Overall, it was a good weekend for us."
Eight starters reached base safely as
Wesley Aguilar drove in three,
Jimmy Roche scored three runs,
Dalton Perry finished with two ribbies and
Brayton Carlson was hit by a pitch three times.
Christian Caulde and
Pablo Hernandez combined for three hits and four runs.
Carlson began the scoring after reaching on a hit by pitch, his first of three on the afternoon, and came around to score on Vesely's first double of the game to give the Javelinas a 1-0 lead.
The four-run second began with a walk to Caudle, double by Hernandez and hit by pitch to Roche. Following a pitching change, Aguilar singled through the left side to plate two and moments later, Vesely drove in two more on a single to give TAMUK a 5-0 lead.
The runs continued to pile up in the third with three runs on two hits as Perry plated two on a triple and a fielding error brought in another run as the Javelinas jumped out to an 8-0 lead.
A four-run fifth began with singles by Caudle and Hernandez and a walk to Roche to load the bases. What seemed to be a bloop single turned into a sacrifice fly for Aguilar and a couple of batters later, the story of the day (Vesely) cleared the bases with his second double of the game to give Kingsville a 12-0 lead.
That was the final as Vesely sealed the victory inducing an out on his 100
th pitch of the ballgame as Texas A&M-Kingsville took the season series 4-3.
Jhonathan Del Rosario (0-1) was tagged with the loss after allowing four runs in 1.0 inning.
The Javelinas will head to Austin to take on nationally-ranked St. Edward's University Tuesday before returning to Nolan Ryan Field to host Eastern New Mexico University for three games, April 22-23.
Be sure to follow the six-time Lone Star Conference championships on Twitter (
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