KINGSVILLE, Texas - Senior Seth Spinn (Holland, Texas) chose the deepest part of the park for his walk-off home run in game one for the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program on Saturday at Nolan Ryan Field, while redshirt junior Amado Almanzar (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) stymied Lubbock Christian for most of game two for the doubleheader sweep in Lone Star Conference action.

"It was a great day overall," said head coach Jason Gonzales. "I thought, from a pitching standpoint, our guys came in and were dominant as I've ever seen in a doubleheader in a long time. Any time you can keep a good team like that to one run in a doubleheader, I can't say enough about it.

"Offensively, we did just enough to get the wins. I think we were able to ride [Seth] Spinn's momentum from game one into game two and beat two tough left-handers because those two are going to win a lot of games in this conference. Couldn't be more pleased with the day."

Spinn's solo shot sailed over the 400-foot mark on the center field fence as the Javelinas (8-1, 8-1 LSC) took the first half of the doubleheader at 2-1 in extra innings, while Almanzar struck out six and no-hit the Chaps (3-6, 3-6 LSC) through six innings in the second half for his first win at 4-0.

GAME ONE

Lubbock Christian struck first in game one in the fifth inning after George Mendazona pushed a single into center to cap Grant Griffin for a 1-0 lead. Griffin reached on a one-out bunt single, stole second, and advanced to third on a ground ball to the first baseman before scoring on the liner.

That was the only the second runner allowed to reach third by junior John Mike Rodriguez (Corpus Christi, Texas), who otherwise stymied the Chaps' bats with seven strikeouts over 5.1 innings of work. He bowed out for senior Tyler Crouch (Bulverde, Texas) in the sixth after a one-out double from Jaxon Shirley, but Crouch summarily struck out Merrit McPherson and got a groundout from Kameron Kilchrist to end the inning.

The Javelinas knotted the score at one apiece in the home half of the sixth after redshirt senior Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) reached on a fielder's choice. Ullman stole second and came home on a soft liner to left from junior Giancarlo Servin (Edinburg, Texas) to get Rodriguez off the hook for the loss.

LCU had a runner reach in the seventh before Crouch handed the reins over to sophomore Matthew Sesler (Harlingen, Texas), who promptly got A.J. Perez to fly out to Spinn before redshirt junior Will Arnold (Magnolia, Texas) threw out Griffin trying to steal second to end the inning.

The eighth inning started simply enough with a strikeout and a fly out to bring up Spinn. The first pitch from Shandon Hererra snuck by for strike one while the next pitch missed the zone to set the stage.

The third pitch of the at-bat went right into Spinn's wheelhouse and he lifted the ball over the wall in center field to give the Hogs their second walk-off win in as many games at 2-1.

"I was sitting on the changeup," said Spinn of his game-winning home run. "He gave me a changeup for a strike and then a changeup for a ball, then happened to groove a fastball right down the middle.

"I was trying to go middle-opposite because I knew I had the power. I figured it was gone as soon as I hit it."

The Javelinas were limited to five hits but they made the most of their opportunities. Servin's single and Spinn's round-tripper were the only two knocks to bring in runs, with Spinn adding one walk to his day.

Rodriguez took the no-decision for TAMUK while redshirt junior Matthew Oleson (Driftwood, Texas) was credited with his first win. Shandon Herrera took the loss as he relieved Armando Valle, who finished with five strikeouts in six innings of work.

GAME TWO

The back end of the doubleheader was a pitching clinic from Almanzar as he allowed only one baserunner through the first five innings on a hit batter in the top of the first. He was given an early lead to work with after Ullman drew a leadoff walk in the bottom half of the opening frame, reached second on a single from Spinn, moved up to third on a fly ball to center, and scored on a sacrifice fly from redshirt sophomore Matthew Stary (Houston, Texas) for a 1-0 lead.

Almanzar took the lead and ran with it and struck out three going into the sixth. The leadoff runner for the Chaps ended up reaching first safely on an errant throw off his groundball, but the transfer from UTRGV struck out the next three batters to end the frame.

The Hogs ended up with two more runs in the bottom of the fifth after junior Reid Baty (Laramie, Wyo.) reached on a bunt and later scored on a wild pitch from Aaron Weseman. After a walk issued to redshirt sophomore Rey Chapa (The Woodlands, Texas), Weseman was pegged for a balk that allowed senior transfer Aldo Buendia (Laredo, Texas) to come home and it gave Almanzar a 3-0 cushion going into the sixth.

Almanzar was given a chance to complete the task he was assigned at the beginning of the game as he trotted out to the mound to start the seventh. The no-hitter was broken up on the first batter, however, when Mendazona roped a pitch into center to start the inning, while Larry Leitha followed with a bounding-ball single through the right half of the diamond.

After a five-pitch walked issued to Luis Navarro, Almanzar was given the hook for junior Chase Glover (Fort Worth, Texas) with bases loaded and nobody out. Glover took his assignment in stride and sat down Shirley on three pitches for the first out before he got Tate Ellison swinging for the second out.

Glover needed only two pitches on the final batter to secure his third save of the year as he got Skylar Nelson out on a groundball over to Servin to end the game and gave the Javelinas their third series win to open the 2020 season.

Five different Hogs connected for a hit in the contest through only Baty and redshirt junior Hayden Fails (Sweeny, Texas) were the only two to reach safely more than once as both ended up with a hit and a walk.

Game four of the series is set for first pitch at 1 p.m. CT on Sunday, February 16, at Nolan Ryan Field.

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