CANYON, Texas - For the second year in a row, the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program had its Lone Star Conference postseason run come to an end in the semifinals as second-seeded No. 14/8 West Texas A&M came away with a 2-0 decision at Wilder Park in the LSC Baseball Championships presented by Under Armour.

The Javelinas (30-20) held the Buffs (40-10) scoreless after the first inning, but could not solve the puzzle that was Joe Corbett as WT tabbed its ace for nine innings of shutout ball to take the win.

Keone Givens started the scoring for the hosts in the bottom of the first as he reached on an infield single, stole second, and crossed home on a double to the left center gap from Jake Pederson.

Pederson ended up at third on a fly ball out to left from Nick Guaragna and later scored on a passed ball for the Buffs' second run, becoming what eventually ended up as the final run for either side.

Corbett took over from there and limited the Hogs to five hits over the course of the game, all singles. Junior Seth Spinn (Holland, Texas) was responsible for two of the hits as he dropped a single to left in the top of the first to push classmate Austin De Leon (Frisco, Texas) to second, and followed up with an infield single in the third with one out.

Sophomore Giancarlo Servin (Edinburg, Texas) roped a pitch into left in the eighth with two outs, mirrored by a liner to right from junior Cameron Melcher (Kerrville, Texas) in the top of the sixth and a bounding ball up the middle from redshirt senior Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas) in the top of the seventh.

TAMUK's best chance to score, oddly enough, came in the top of the first after Melcher drew a one-out free pass to load the bases for redshirt senior Pablo Hernandez (Havana, Cuba). The last time Hernandez had the bases loaded against WT was in the bottom of the 13th in the series finale on March 24 and the Spring Woods H.S. product responded with a first-pitch grand slam to propel the Blue and Gold to the win.

Unfortunately, Corbett would not allow any heroics from the Javelina as he sat down Hernandez on three pitches before getting a ground ball from freshman Steven Bonuz (Port Lavaca, Texas) to work out of the jam.

In total, the Hogs stranded six runners on base, the last coming in the eighth on Servin's single. Corbett finished the day with 13 strikeouts in his second complete-game win over the Blue and Gold in 2019 as he took the decision in the series opener on March 22 with nine strikeouts.

Junior Zach Boyett (Robinson, Texas) was billed as the starter for TAMUK and took the loss after getting the hook with one out in the bottom of the fourth for senior Eric Sandoz (Austin, Texas). Sandoz took over the next 12 outs and gave way to sophomore Tyler Flores (San Antonio, Texas) and redshirt senior Garrett Alexander (Spring, Texas) in the eighth.

Flores struck out the lone batter he faced in the frame before Alexander ended the stanza with a fly ball out to right for the final out.

Any hope to extend the Javelinas' LSC run was squelched as they went down in order in the ninth to bring the game to an end.

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-