KINGSVILLE, Texas – The No. 27 Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program honored its 11 seniors prior to first pitch against Cameron on Sunday at Nolan Ryan Field, and nearly every single one had a say in the 6-1 win to close the 2018 regular-season with a win to sweep the final Lone Star series.

The Javelinas (36-13, 15-9 LSC) went pitcher-by-committee and had a combined no-hitter through five innings against the Aggies (15-32, 5-19 LSC) before getting the fifth save of the year from junior Joshua Valdez (Kyle, Texas) to lock up the third seed in the 2018 LSC Championships scheduled to start on Thursday, May 10, in Canyon, Texas.

The 11 members of the 2018 Javelina baseball senior class included Austin Ingraham (Fort Worth, Texas), Travis Geiser (Portland, Texas), Levi Zents (Fort Worth, Texas), Christian Caudle (Klein, Texas), Dallas Stefano (Cypress, Texas), Isaiah Lybarger (Corpus Christi, Texas), Lee May Gonzalez (Corpus Christi, Texas), Jarred Taylor (Vidor, Texas), Trey Taylor (Leander, Texas), Kyle Craft (Victoria, Texas) and Seth Hubert (Riviera, Texas) and all had various friends and family members in attendance during the pregame ceremony.

Zents started the scoring for the Hogs with a bounding ball through the left side to score redshirt-sophomore Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) in the bottom of the third, while junior Pablo Hernandez (Havana, Cuba) sent a fly ball to left later in the frame to plate Zents.

Stefano followed up with a double over the left fielder's head in the bottom of the fifth to score Zents yet again for a 3-0 lead favoring the Blue and Gold.

Zents finished his day with four hits, all singles, to go with two RBI and two runs, while Stefano and Geiser both had multi-hit days as well with two apiece.

Meanwhile, junior Preston Plovanich (Santa Fe, Texas) got the start on the mound for the Hogs and was perfect through three innings after getting help in the outfield from Ingraham who had a pair of beautiful diving catches to preserve the no-hitter.

Plovanich's day was done after his third inning of work to clear the way for L. Gonzalez, who kept the perfect game intact in the fourth inning before the first Aggie baserunner got aboard on a hit-by-pitch with one out in the top of the fifth.

L. Gonzalez worked out of the jam and handed the reins to Hubert, who kept the no-hitter intact in the sixth inning before a leadoff triple from Luke Hughes in the top of the seventh finally broke the ice for the visitors.

Hubert kept the Aggies scoreless after getting help on a fielder's choice groundball back to Hernandez, who went straight to the plate to retire Hughes, before T. Taylor came into the game for the Javelinas in the top of the eighth.

Taylor hit a speedbump in his frame as the Aggies loaded the bases with two outs on an infield single, allowing a run to score on a failed pickoff attempt, but a timely pitching change that brought in Valdez proved all the difference.

Valdez induced the inning-ending groundball to second to preserve the 3-1 lead heading into the bottom of the eighth.

The Hogs got three insurance runs across in the home half of the stanza, first when Ingraham reached on a bunt single to third and ended up at third base once the dust had settled as an errant throw found its way into the outfield that allowed the senior to move up while junior Alex Gonzalez (Corpus Christi, Texas) hustled around the base paths and scored all the way from first.

Ingraham crossed the plate in the following at bat when Ullman roped a pitch into center, while the redshirt-sophomore would later score after swiping second, advancing to third on a ground ball from junior Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas), and coming home on Zents' fourth single of the day.

Valdez cruised through the top of the ninth with a pair of strikeouts to lift the Javelinas' 2018 record at Nolan Ryan Field to 20-5, the fifth time the Hogs have recorded 20 wins at home under the direction of head coach Jason Gonzales.

The 36 wins is the most for the Javelinas since 2014 when they went 38-20 and were one game shy of advancing to the NCAA Division-II College World Series for the first time in program history after falling to Colorado Mesa in the NCAA South Central Regional Tournament.

The 2018 LSC Championships will be hosted by West Texas A&M after the Buffs clinched the regular-season title with a 3-1 series win over Angelo State. The Hogs will head in as the third seed and will have to await the final score in the game between UT-Permian Basin and Eastern New Mexico before the sixth seed is decided.

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