KINGSVILLE, Texas – Joshua Valdez and Tyler Flores combined for six-and-two-thirds innings of one-run relief, but the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team was handed its first defeat of the season, 8-3, at the hands of the St. Mary's Rattlers on Friday night at Nolan Ryan Field in Kingsville, Texas.

This was the first loss of 2018 for the Hoggies, who are now 7-1. St. Mary's bumps their record to7-3.

Four batters in, the Rattlers led 2-0. James Davison and Andrew Perez drew consecutive walks to lead-off and Donnie Perez drove in Davison by lining a double into right-center. Angel Vela followed with a sacrifice fly tally the second run.

In the second, after Preston Plovanich (2-1) recorded the first two outs, Vela singled and Davison ripped a triple into the right field corner. St. Mary's centerfielder then scored on an error and Perez drilled a two-run homer to left, putting the Rattlers ahead 6-0. That lead grew to seven in the third thanks to a Patrick Fennell RBI single and Perez pushed it to eight in the fourth with his second long ball of the evening.

Fernando Fernandez-Beltran (2-1) kept the Hogs off the board through the first four frames before the home team struck in the fifth. Levi Zents began the rally with a walk and he came all the way around when Manny Loredo dropped a two-bagger into left-center. Loredo touched home with TAMUK's second run on an Alex Gonzalez single and Dylan Hutcheson brought the Javs to within 8-3 with another knock, this one scoring Gonzalez from second.

Fernadez-Beltran reestablished control after the fifth and didn't permit another hit over the next three innings. Branson Hall entered in the ninth and retired the side in order.

The Javelinas will have two chances to exact revenge on their visitors on Saturday, when they host the Rattlers in a doubleheader. The scheduled first pitch times are 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. To keep up with all things Javelina athletics and to follow the program all season long, be sure to log onto javelinaathletics.com, follow the team on Twitter @JavelinaBSB, like /JavelinaSports on Facebook and subscribe to the Javelina athletics YouTube channel.