HOUSTON (Baseball) – Following up 8.0 innings of shutout ball by Seth Hubert, Isaiah Lybarger dealt a gem of his own, punching out nine in 6.0 innings. The right-hander struck out nine in 6.0 innings of work but ended the morning with a no-decision. After taking a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the sixth to surrender the lead in the seventh, the #RV Texas A&M University-Kingsville (5-0) bats woke up and scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh to defeat the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (5-4), 6-1, Saturday morning in Minute Maid Park.
 
With some help from his defense, the Javelinas held Arkansas Fort Smith scoreless through the top half of the sixth after Alex Gonzalez gunned out a Lions baserunner at the plate to keep zeros on the scoreboard. The baseball Gods rewarded A&M-Kingsville as the Pack scored in the bottom frame on a double by Pablo Hernandez to take a 1-0 lead.
 
Christian Caudle drew a two-out walk and after advancing a bag on a wild pitch, the junior who applied the tag to end the top of the sixth, came around to score on Hernandez's double.
 
After UAFS tied the game at 1-1 in the top of the seventh, Dallas Stefano put Kingsville back in front 2-1 with a solo shot in the bottom frame.
 
The offense continued to put up runs in the latter phase of the ballgame and the pitching held the Lions to the one run to clinch the 5-0 start to the 2017 season.
 
Perkins went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Gonzalez added two base knocks and two runs. Caudle continued to show impressive discipline at the plate, tallying three walks to up his season total to
 
HOW THEY SCORED
Day two of the Houston Winter Invitational began with a pitcher's duel as Lybarger matched Evan Dodd until the Hogs put the first run on the board in the seventh on Hernandez's double.
 
However, UAFS was able to knot the game at 1-1 in the top of the seventh off four hit by pitches.
 
With one out in the bottom half of the seventh, Stefano regained a one-run lead for the Javelinas, blasting a 3-0 pitch to right field for the team's first home run of the season.
 
The Stefano bomb seemed to get the offense rolling as Payton Geisinger and Gonzalez recorded back-to-back singles and Joshua Croft walked to load the bases. Hunter Perkins drew a bases loaded walk to bring home Geisinger and extend the lead to 3-1.
 
Caudle followed with a walk to leave the bases juiced and give TAMUK a three-run cushion.
 
The runs continued in the eighth as Levi Zents began the bottom with a base on ball and advanced to second on Gonzalez's single. Croft and Perkins followed with back-to-back RBI singles to give A&M-Kingsville a 6-1 edge.
 
RECORDS
Lybarger's morning was complete after the right-hander struck out nine in 6.0 innings of work. He remains 1-0 on the young season after picking up the no-decision. Hunter Lehman was charged with a blown save after 0.2 innings. Sebi Palacios came in with two outs and the bases juiced in the top of the seventh and induced a grounder to end the inning with three runners stranded.
 
Palacios (1-0) earned the victory after retiring the lone batter he faced. Tyler Crouch picked up his first save of the victory with 2.0 shutout innings out of the pen. Dawson Floyd fell to 0-1 with the two earned runs allowed in the seventh.
 
NEXT UP
The Javelinas close out the Houston Winter Invitational tomorrow at 6 p.m. versus #RV St. Mary's University. Live stats and audio will be available on JavelinaAthletics.com.
 
SOCIAL MEDIA
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