KINGSVILLE, Texas - The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball program dropped its series opener to Lubbock Christian on Friday at Hays Field in the Lone Star Conference matchup.
The Javelinas (9-4, 9-4 LSC) knotted the game at two apiece in the third after falling behind early to the Chaps (7-9, 6-7 LSC) but were held scoreless the rest of the way en route to the 5-2 final.
LCU jumped out to an early lead in the bottom of the first after Colin Gordon laced a double to right to score Eduardo Acosta who led off the stanza with a single to left and ended up on second with a stolen base. Colin later moved up to third on a fly ball to right and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly to left from George Mendazona for the 2-0 cushion.
The Hogs got both runs back in the top of the third when freshman Garrett Thompson (New Braunfels, Texas) doubled to the left center gap to start the inning and scored on a single to center from senior Austin De Leon (Frisco, Texas). De Leon ended up at second on a wild pitch and soon scored on a single back up the middle from classmate Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) for an evened count on the scoreboard going into the home half of the frame.
The hosts took the lead back in the bottom of the fourth on another sacrifice fly, again from Mendazona out to center that plated Mason Donohoe. The Chaps tacked on two more insurance runs, first on an RBI single from Acosta in the seventh and another RBI from Mendazona after he doubled in the eighth.
TAMUK had a batter reach safely in four of the remaining six innings but ran into a stringent LCU defense. A two-out single from senior Aldo Buendia (Laredo, Texas) was erased after the Hog was thrown out trying to steal second in the top of the fourth, while a one-out single from De Leon in the top of the fifth was squashed behind a double play.
Two runners reached safely to start the seventh, behind a leadoff single from freshman Damian Rodriguez (McAllen, Texas) and a hit-by-pitch issued to classmate Matthew Castro (Corpus Christi, Texas). Owen Woodward worked out of the jam, however, with a groundout and back-to-back strikeouts to halt the rally.
The last scoring opportunity came in the top of the eighth after sophomore Steven Bonuz (Port Lavaca, Texas) and senior Seth Spinn (Holland, Texas) both stood in scoring position with two outs, but closer Cade Acrey struck out the final batter in the inning and sat down the Hogs in order in the top of the ninth to secure the win for the Chaps.
Junior John Mike Rodriguez (Corpus Christi, Texas) started on the hill for the visitors and turned in five innings with two strikeouts for his first loss. He gave way to redshirt senior Alex Canul (Edinburg, Texas) who went the next 2.1 innings on the bump ahead of junior Mason Foster (Dilley, Texas) who closed out the final two outs in the eighth.
Game two of the LSC series is set for first pitch at 2 p.m. CT at Hays Field on Saturday, March 20.
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