AUSTIN, Texas - The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program put on a hitting clinic today against St. Edward's in a South Central regional matchup, and came away with a win in the second half of the home-and-home courtesy of five home runs en route to an 18-5 decision to close the non-conference schedule.
"I love the way we competed for the entire road trip," said head coach
Jason Gonzales. "Going 5-1 isn't easy to do. We've played very good, hard-nosed ball for a while now and are taking some momentum into conference play."
The Javelinas (16-8) jumped on the Hilltoppers (11-14) in the top of the second after redshirt freshman
Matthew Stary (Houston, Texas) opened the scoring with a RBI liner into center to cap redshirt-sophomore
Will Arnold (Magnolia, Texas) for the first run.
A failed pickoff attempt on redshirt junior
Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) later in the at bat provided the second run for the visitors, as Stary scored on the muffed throw, while a seeing-eye single from redshirt senior
Alex Gonzalez (Corpus Christi, Texas) plated Ullman for a 3-0 lead going into the third.
The first round-tripper of the game came via a long ball from redshirt senior
Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas) over the right field wall in the top of the third for a 5-0 lead, his third of the year. Meanwhile, sophomore
Giancarlo Servin (Edinburg, Texas) brought in the sixth run for TAMUK in painful fashion as he was plunked with the bases loaded in the fourth to push Stary home.
The hosts posted their first run in the bottom half of the stanza on Blake Holub's solo shot to right. The Hogs got the run back, along with some insurance, in the fifth after Stary skied the second homer of the contest, and of the year, for two runs out to left center for an 8-1 lead heading into the bottom half of the frame.
A sacrifice fly from
Jacob Vasquez provided the second run for SEU, while Holub singled in another run in the bottom of the seventh before a TAMUK miscue provided the fourth run for the Hilltoppers at 8-4 going into the eighth.
The Hogs opened the floodgates in the final two at bats as Servin ignited the rally in the top of the eighth with a double in the left center gap to bring junior
Seth Spinn (Holland, Texas) home. Redshirt senior
Pablo Hernandez (Havana, Cuba) found a gap in left for another run later in the at bat, pushing Servin across, while Arnold cranked a three-run blast to left center, his second of the season, to put the line score at 13-4 going into the ninth.
Senior
Donovan Lewis (Alvin, Texas) matched Arnold with a three-run home run of his own out to left, the first of the year for him, before classmate
Dylan Hutcheson (Wichita Falls, Texas) tacked on his first homer of the year in the form of a two-run shot to left to set the Blue and Gold total at 18.
SEU added the final run in the bottom of the ninth before redshirt senior
Garrett Alexander (Houston, Texas) and senior
Eric Sandoz (Austin, Texas) teamed up to shut the door on the Hilltoppers.
Redshirt junior
Alex Canul (Edinburg, Texas) got the start for the Javelinas and went three and 1/3 innings for his first win of the season, giving way to junior
Tyler Crouch (Bulverde, Texas) in the fourth.
In total, the 17 hits posted by TAMUK were scattered across 10 different batters, with Servin and Spinn leading the pack at three hits apiece. Spinn added three runs scored and a walk to his total, while Servin tallied two RBI, two runs and a stolen base.
Arnold, Stary and Gonzalez were the other Hogs with multiple hits as each posted two in the win.
The Javelinas will officially open up Lone Star Conference play later this week with a four-game set against No. 5/3 West Texas A&M starting on Friday, March 22, with a first pitch time of 6 p.m. CT at Nolan Ryan Field.
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
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