Alpine, TX - Texas A&M-Kingsville crushed Sul Ross State in both games of Saturday's double header, 15-6 and 9-1, to take the series win at Kokernot Field.
The Javelinas (11-6, 11-6 LSC) racked up 32 combined hits across the pair of games to get their fourth series win of the season over the Lobos (1-16, 1-16 LSC). The 20 hits that the Javelinas piled up in game one of the double-header are a season-high, while that same games marks the fifth time that Javelinas have crossed the double-digit mark on the scoreboard.
Game 1:
Game one of Saturday's pair of games was simply the
Cash Benavidez show. The native of Alice, Texas, blasted two pitches out of the park in his first start of the season while fellow infielder
Landon Salinas notched his first career homer as well.
The first two homers by the duo came when the Javelinas needed it, as Sul Ross jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first thanks to a pair of home runs themselves. Salinas' HR knotted the game up at three apiece while Benavidez's gave the Javelinas the lead as it would also bring in
Isaiah Aguilar, making the score 5-3.
From there, the Javelinas scored four more runs in the top of the third to all but put the game away with a 9-3 lead.
Zachary Wright pitched one-run baseball through his remaining three innings of work. Benavidez would blast his second homer of the game in the fourth, that made it a 10-4 ballgame as the Javelinas cruises to a game one victory.
Game 2:
The offensive fireworks from game one would be quieted in game two of the double-header, as neither team could get a run across the board in the first two innings.
James Placke was threatened in the bottom of the second with bases loaded, but got out of the jam to keep the Lobos off the board.
Texas A&M-Kingsville got the first run of the contest on the board the very next inning, as
Braden Duff sacrificed his bat with a fly-out to score
Fisher Davis and give the Javelinas the early advantage. Placke continued to pitch shutout baseball through the bottom of the third and fourth, as the Javelinas carried their one-run lead into the fifth.
That inning would be where the Javelinas would take the game over.
Joshua Endo loaded the bases to join
Travis Vlasek and Davis along the basepaths for Duff to bring in those two with a two-RBI single. Salinas would then cleanup the basepaths with a double to score another pair of runs, followed by an Aguilar double that brought him home to make it a six to nothing ballgame.
Three more insurance runs would be scored in the sixth, one of them courtesy of
Sergio Galvan Jr's third RBI of the season, to make it an insurmountable 9-0 lead for the Javelinas. A late rally by the Lobos scored a pair, but would not score enough as the Javelinas took the series.
Texas A&M-Kingsville will look for their first sweep of the season against Sul Ross State Sunday at 1:00 pm from Kokernot Field. Fans of the Javelinas can watch the game on FloCollege or follow the action at JavelinaBSB on X.
