KINGSVILLE, Texas - The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program had a handful of hurlers shine on the hill on Saturday in a twinbill sweep of Missouri-St. Louis at Nolan Ryan Field in non-conference action.

The Javelinas (8-4) rode the arm of senior Joshua Valdez (Kyle, Texas) to seven strikeouts in six innings of work before getting two more punchouts from classmate Eric Sandoz (Austin, Texas) for the save in a 3-2 decision in game one. While junior Zach Boyett (Robinson, Texas) sat down seven more Tritons (0-6) in game two en route to a 12-0 shutout to clinch the series.

"I thought our pitching was dominant today," said head coach Jason Gonzales. "Any time you play 14 innings and only give up two runs against any college team, that's about as good as it gets and it allows our hitters to settle in and score a few runs. It was a good day today."

GAME ONE

Valdez (2-1) sat down the first seven batters he faced in the first game of Saturday's twofer, four of which came via strikes.  The transfer from Coastal Bend ran into a bit of trouble in the top of the third with runners at the corners and two outs, but got Tom DeCero looking at strike three to end any hope to crack the egg showing on the board.

Meanwhile, the Javelina offense put runners at first and third in the bottom of the second following a hit-and-run with redshirt sophomore Will Arnold (Magnolia, Texas) at the plate and junior Austin De Leon (Frisco, Texas) standing on first.

De Leon took off on the second pitch of the at bat and Arnold roped a liner into right to set up the RBI double from redshirt freshman Rey Chapa (The Woodlands, Texas) who smoked the 0-1 serving from Matt Graser down the left field line to put the Hogs up early.

Junior Seth Spinn (Holland, Texas) tacked on another run with an infield single to the shortstop putting TAMUK up 2-0 heading into the third.

The Blue and Gold added what became the final run on a triple to deep right from De Leon in the bottom half of the third, plating redshirt senior Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas) in the process, while Valdez hit cruise control heading into the sixth inning.

UMSL got the first two batters aboard in the top of the sixth with DeCero dropping a double into right center to push Jacob Stoker to third. Both came home for the Tritons on a bounding-ball through the left half of the diamond as the relay was cutoff on the way back into the infield to set the score at 3-2.

Valdez coolly worked through the next three batters, despite DeCero getting to third on a wild pitch, as senior Donovan Lewis (Alvin, Texas) gloved a popup from Jackson Dvorak in foul territory for the first out.

With the infield playing in to cut off the run, Brandon Olion lined out to redshirt-senior Tim Gleinser (Victoria, Texas) to temper any expectations for a tied game, while Jarrett O'Brien grounded out to Gleinser for the final out to preserve the one-run lead.

Sandoz got the bill for the seventh inning and quickly sat down the first two batters on strikes before securing his second save of the year on a grounder to first for the 3-2 win.

Spinn, Loredo and Arnold each finished with two hits in the game to lead the effort at the plate.

GAME TWO

The second game of the day was more of the same from the Javelina pitching staff as Boyett (2-0) went to work. The Weatherford transfer allowed only two base runners through the first five innings before losing the no-hitter with one out in the sixth on a bloop single to left.

Boyett ended up with seven punchouts and allowed only one runner to reach second during his time on the hill for his second win of the year.

The offense went to work in the bottom of the second with an RBI double from senior Dylan Hutcheson (Wichita Falls, Texas) to open the scoring. The Hogs opened the floodgates in the bottom of the fifth after the first three batters reached safely on a walk to load the bases with nobody out and set the stage for what became eight runs in the frame.

Spinn plated the first run on a sacrifice fly to center before sophomore Giancarlo Servin (Edinburg, Texas) poked a single through the left half of the infield for the second.

A bases-loaded walk from freshman Steven Bonuz (Port Lavaca, Texas) plated the third run of the frame, matched by De Leon's free pass with the bases juiced in the next at bat for run number four.

Redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez (Havana, Cuba) added the fifth after he snuck a single through the left half of the diamond while Hutcheson, now officially batting around, slotted a single into right for the sixth run.

A fielder's choice grounder to second from redshirt junior Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) turned into the seventh run, while the eighth, and final, run came home on a wild pitch to set the score at 9-0 going into the sixth inning.

The Hogs added three more in the following at bat after Bonuz drilled a double to right before he came across on a wild pitch later in the stanza, while Hernandez capped the day with a hard grounder back up the middle to plate redshirt freshman John Cantu (Kingsville, Texas) to cement the line score at 12-0 going into the seventh.

Boyett gave way to junior Tyler Crouch (Bulverde, Texas) in the seventh and the Smithson Valley H.S. ran into some trouble as the first three batters reached to load the bases with nobody out.

The classic 1-2-3 double play from Crouch to Bonuz to Hernandez dashed any hopes to erase the shutout as the comebacker was fielded cleanly by Crouch, while the final batter went out looking on three straight pitches to finalize the box score at 12-0.

Servin, Hernandez and Hutcheson each tallied two hits on the backend of the doubleheader, with Hutcheson adding a pair of walks to his day.

The series finale is set for 12 p.m. CT on Sunday, February 24 at Nolan Ryan Field as the Javelinas look for their first four-game sweep of the 2019 season.

Stay up-to-date with everything Javelina baseball at JavelinaAthletics.com, follow the program on Twitter @JavelinaBSB and see recent news on Facebook at /JavelinaBSB

-JAVELINAS-