Box Score
ABILENE, Texas — McMurry University was able to knock off the Rattlers with another walk-off Saturday to take the series 2-1.
No. 7 St. Mary's suffered a 3-2 loss to the War Hawks as McMurry proved clutch once again, coming from behind in the bottom of ninth to score two runs to win it. McMurry also won with a walk-off in Game 2 of the series, scoring in the bottom of the 10th.
Matt McClain (So., San Antonio) had the start, pitching 8 1/3 innings for five strikeouts and allowing two earned runs.
Jonathan Perez (RS-Sr., San Antonio) had the save opportunity coming in with one out in the ninth and the Rattlers up 2-1, but a McMurry double and a sacrifice fly gave the War Hawks the tight victory to drop Perez to 3-2 on the season.
The Rattlers smacked seven hits to the War Hawks' 10, with
Kyle Bumpas (Jr., El Paso, Texas) stepping up in a big way. Bumpas went 3 for 5 at the plate and recorded both of St. Mary's two RBI.
Mario Maldonado (So., Laredo, Texas),
Brandon Bates (Sr., Boerne, Texas),
Keith Funk (RS-Fr., San Antonio) and
Nathan Humpal (Jr., Corpus Christi, Texas) all came away with one hit to round out the Rattlers' seven-hit day.
The tightly contested series, with the three games won by only one run, dropped the Rattlers to 17-8 on the season.
St. Mary's will stay on the road to face provisional conference member Oklahoma Christian University before starting round two of league play.
The Rattlers play the Eagles Thursday in Oklahoma City at 1 p.m.
St. Mary's University, as a Catholic Marianist University, fosters the formation of people in faith and educates leaders for the common good through community service, integrated liberal arts and professional education, and academic excellence. The University has six athletic national titles: men's basketball (1989–NAIA), baseball (2001–NCAA Div. II), softball (1986–NAIA and 2002–NCAA Div. II) and an individual national champion in men's golf (2006–NCAA Div. II) and a national academic championship in men's golf (2009–NCAA Div. II). St. Mary's also had more than 40 percent of its athletes named to conference, regional and/or national honor rolls this past year. St. Mary's student–athletes graduation rate is 65 percent, higher than the NCAA Division II average of 55 percent. To learn more about St. Mary's, visit www.rattlerathletics.com.
