KINGSVILLE, Texas- Redshirt senior
Brandon Symmank (Cypress, Texas) spun a gem on Sunday, leading the Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team to a 9-1 game four victory over the UT Tyler Patriots, to claim a 3-1 series win in Lone Star Conference action at Nolan Ryan Field.
"The starting pitching, we got all weekend, from game one to game four, they came out and set the tone," said coach
Jason Gonzales. "That's what great pitching staffs do, they build off of each other and they allow their hitters to settle, and we were able to score four in the first and for us that's called throwing a punch and once you throw a punch and you get up, we're going to do what we're going to do…I couldn't be more proud of how we competed this weekend."
The Javelinas (9-4, 8-4 LSC) overcame the Patriots (6-6, 6-6 LSC), with Symmank picking up the win after allowing a single run while recording seven strikeouts in seven innings on the hill. Additionally, junior
Luis Martinez (Grulla, Texas) tossed two hitless innings capping off the win with a pair of strikeouts.
The Hogs scored nine runs on 16 hits, as senior
Giancarlo Servin (Edinburg, Texas) compiled four RBIs, while sophomore
Shelby Becker (Boerne, Texas) collected two. Sophomore
Garrett Thompson (New Braunfels) was perfect on the day, going 3-3 with two walks.
The Pack jumped out to an early lead, pushing four runs across the plate in the bottom of the first, as Servin smashed a three-run homer over the left field wall, scoring Thompson and Becker. A walk by sophomore
Jake Chapman (Boerne, Texas) led to a sophomore
Nick Wolff (Kline, Texas) double that increased the Javelina lead to four.
The Javs added two more in the second, with Thompson, Servin, and Wolff all hitting triples, while Chapman recorded an RBI groundout.
Their success continued in the third, with a single and a steal by Bumstead, that allowed him to score on a Thompson hit. Later in the inning Thompson swiped a bag of his own before crossing the plate on a single through the right side by Becker, resulting in an 8-0 score line.
The Patriots finally broke through in the top of the seventh, courtesy of a Tommy van de Sanden solo shot, before the Javs answered in the bottom of the frame, with a Becker two-bagger plating Thompson who got on base after being issued a free pass, resulting in a 9-1 final score, that allowed the Javs to take a 3-1 series win.
The Pack now travels to Fort Smith, Arkansas, for a four-game LSC showdown against the Arkansas-Fort Smith Lions, with game one set for Friday, at 2 p.m.
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