KINGSVILLE, Texas – The Texas A&M-Kingsville baseball team took both ends of its twin bill against Arkansas-Fort Smith on Saturday behind strong pitching and defense win, 2-1 and 5-0. 

"I really liked how we played today," said head coach Jason Gonzales. "We played well in all facets, but for us it starts on the mound and our guys stepped up today both starters and the bullpen in miserable conditions I'm really proud of them." 

Senior right hander Luis Martinez shined in the second game of the day throwing a complete seven inning shutout with four strikeouts. 

The pair of wins improve the Javelinas to 16-13 on the season and 15-12 in Lone Star Conference play while the Lions fall to 6-18 on the season and 4-18 in the LSC. 

Game 1 

The first half of the day's twin bill was a pitcher's duel as Colton Taylor put on a strong performance on the mound going five and a third innings allowing only one run on three hits while getting six strikeouts to get the win. 

In the second, UAFS threatened to break the game open working the bases loaded with only one out before Taylor forced a ground ball up the middle that the Javs turned into a double play getting out of the jam. 

TAMUK looked poised to take the lead in the third as Ivan Duarte singled to shortstop as Dalton Kramer advanced all the way to third on a throwing error by the UAFS fielder in the play. However, the Javelinas grounded into a double play of their own to end the opportunity. 

In the fourth, UAFS once again got runners into scoring position, and this time took advantage of it with a ground out that scored a runner from third to go up 1-0. Taylor, however, did strike out the next batter leaving two more runners stranded in scoring position. 

The Blue and Gold struck back in the fifth as Nick Wolff singled through the right side to score Michael Cervantes who had reached after being hit by a pitcher to lead the inning off. 

Two batters later, Jake Chapman delivered a two-out double down the left-field line scoring Wolff to give TAMUK a 2-1 lead. 

In the seventh, the Lions were able to once again load the bases with two outs, but Karson Shepard came in to pitch for the Javs and recorded the final out via a strikeout to get the save and the 2-1 win for TAMUK. 

Game 2 

The Javelina defense continued to be strong in the second game of the day thanks in large part to Luis Martinez (4-1) who earned a complete game win on the mound only giving up five hits and getting four strikeouts in the win. 

Offensively, the Javs took an early lead as Wolff picked up another RBI on the day with a single through the right side in the first to score Dalton Kramer. 

Much like game one, it was a pitcher's duel with no more runs being scored till the fifth where Jacob Rosales singled to left field with the bases loaded to score Ivan Duarte putting the Javs up 2-0. Later in the inning, TAMUK doubled its lead as two runners came across off a throwing error by the UAFS pitcher. 

Another error by the Lions in the sixth allowed another Javelina run to come across pushing the lead to five. 

In the seventh, UAFS was able to get two runners in scoring position with two outs, but Martinez forced a groundout to Cervantes at third to secure the 5-0 win. 

Tomorrow, the Javelinas will attempt to sweep the Lions with first pitch at 1 p.m.

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