KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M University-Kingsville baseball program took an early lead against No. 17 Angelo State on Sunday at Nolan Ryan Field and cruised to a 9-5 final to take three of four in the Lone Star matchup.
The Javelinas (24-8, 4-4 LSC) turned in a solid team performance at the plate while juniors
Preston Plovanich (Santa Fe, Texas) and
Joshua Valdez (Kyle, Texas) provided the one-two punch on the mound to stymie the Rams (27-12, 7-5 LSC) en route to the 9-5 final.
Senior
Dallas Stefano (Cypress, Texas) lit the fire in the bottom of the second as he skied the fourth pitch of his at bat to right field to lead off the stanza for the Hogs.
TAMUK ended up loading the bases with one out later in the at bat and added a second run after redshirt-junior
Alex Gonzalez (Corpus Christi, Texas) looped a single into left to plate junior
Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas), while redshirt-sophomore
Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) cleared the bases with a triple to center for a 5-0 Javelina lead heading into the third.
The Rams got on the board in the top half of the third after Nick Novak dropped a double through the right side with two outs to score Trevor Moses from second, but Plovanich would induce a ground ball to end the frame.
Plovanich took his fourth win of the year with 5.2 innings pitched and fanned seven ASU batters in the process.
The Hogs built the lead up to six after getting a run whensenior
Levi Zents (Fort Worth, Texas) drove a bounding-ball single back up the middle in the fourth to cap Ullman, whilejunior
Dylan Hutcheson (Wichita Falls, Texas) ended up across the plate on a wild pitch in the fifth from Andrew Croucher.
Angelo State added two runs on a single into right from Andrew Morales in the sixth inning, but the Javelinas got the runs back in the bottom half of the frame after redshirt-junior
Tim Gleinser (Victoria, Texas) reached on a throwing error by the pitcher that allowed Ullman and senior
Austin Ingraham (Fort Worth, Texas) to score.
The Rams chipped away at the lead in the seventh with a run-scoring single from Mitch Henshaw and a wild pitch from TAMUK that allowed Novak to score, but Valdez settled into a groove and sat down six of the final seven batters to secure the win.
Valdez tallied his second save of the season behind 3.1 innings of work with five punchouts and one hit allowed.
The Javelina hitters finished with 11 hits in the contest as Ullman went 3-for-5 from the plate with three RBI and two runs scored. Loredo and Hutcheson also finished with a multi-hit game as both posted a pair of hits in the win.
The Hogs will return to Nolan Ryan Field on Tuesday, April 10, in the final non-conference matchup of the regular season against the University of Houston-Victoria. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.
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