HOUSTON – The road back to the Division-II College World Series got off to a bumpy start on Friday at Minute Maid Park, as the No. 6/5 Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program fell in the season opener to No. RV/39 St. Cloud State at the Houston Winter Invitational by a count of 7-2.

The Javelinas (0-1) got a strong showing on the mound from senior Preston Plovanich (Santa Fe, Texas), who struck out eight in six innings of work despite going in as the pitcher of record for an 0-1 mark to start the year, while the Huskies (1-0) were led by Dominic Austing who turned in 5 and 2/3 innings of work and sat down 11 Hogs on strikes en route to the win.

"Preston [Plovanich] threw well enough to win," said head coach Jason Gonzales. "He gave us that opportunity, but from an offensive standpoint we didn't do near enough today. We didn't threaten their starter even though we had a few chances to get to him and we had some bad at bats.

"The inning where we gave up five runs is when it got away from us, but overall, I'm pleased with how Preston performed."

The Santa Fe, Texas, native allowed only one earned run during his time on the mound, coming in the form of a Matthew Meyer single to center that capped Jordan Joseph in the top of the first inning. SCSU added a second run in the top of the third when Joseph skied a sacrifice fly to right and brought home Najee Gaskins.

Gaskins opened the stanza with a bounding-ball single through the left half of the diamond and advanced to third during Joseph's at bat on an errant throw following a failed pickoff attempt.

Plovanich got the hook for junior Noel Solis (Brownsville, Texas) to start the seventh as Solis worked through his first inning on the mound in the Blue and Gold with a pair of flyouts and his first strikeout of the season. Meanwhile, the Hogs were stymied by Austing who didn't allow a single runner to get to second base through the first five innings until redshirt junior Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) drew a one-out walk in the sixth and made it to second on a balk.

The Huskies did their most damage in the eighth to put the game out of reach behind five runs on four hits and a Javelina miscue. Solis retired the first two batters before Mitch Mallek reached on an infield single to start the rally.

Meyer followed up with a single to left before Harris drove the first run in on a liner to straightaway center field for a 3-0 SCSU lead. Lenny Walker added to the total with a ground ball to third that snuck past the fielder to allow Meyer to score before Gonzales opted for the bullpen once more.

The pitching change did little to slow the Huskies as Toran Shahidi cleared the bags with one swing of the bat and skied a round-tripper to left to put the Javelinas in a 7-0 deficit going into the bottom of the eighth.

TAMUK finally cracked the egg showing on the scoreboard in the bottom half of the frame after redshirt senior Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas) loaded the bases with a one-out walk and paved the way for a two-run double from sophomore Giancarlo Servin (Edinburg, Texas) that found the gap in right center.

Unfortunately, there would be no late-game heroics as the Javelinas went down in order in the bottom of the ninth to take away the 7-2 defeat to start the 2019 campaign.

Servin was responsible for two of TAMUK's seven hits on the day, one coming in the form of the two-run double in the eighth alongside a single to center in the seventh.

The Javelinas will look to rebound from the sluggish start on Saturday as they face off against No. 20/22 Central Missouri for the second day of the 2019 Houston Winter Invitational.

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