Box Score VICTORIA, Texas —
Adrian Garcia sure found a way to be effective Tuesday.
In the Rattlers' 9-8 victory over Houston-Victoria in a four-hour, 11-inning marathon, it was Garcia (RS-Sr., El Paso, Texas) who would cause the winning run only to pick up the win on the mound in 3.1 innings of clutch pitching in his first career appearance on the hill.
StMU jumped off to a three-run first inning and put up one run in both the third and fourth inning to maintain a solid 5-2 lead over the Jaguars.
Houston-Victoria was able to capture the lead in the fifth, 6-5, that was short lived as the Rattlers put up another three-spot in the sixth to lead it again by two, 8-6.
The scoring went stale after the Jaguars tied it up 8-8 in the eighth, forcing 11 innings that ended on a dropped fly smacked by Garcia to score
Al Gonzalez (RS-So., Pasedena, Texas) for the win.
In a game that saw only four scoreless innings from either team, No. 7 St. Mary's blazed for 15 hits in the victory with five Rattlers recording a multiple-hit game.
Designated hitter
Omar Garcia (RS-Jr., El Paso, Texas) led impressively at the plate, going 3-4 with three RBI and two runs scored.
Mario Maldonado (Jr., Laredo, Texas),
Nathan Humpal (Sr., Corpus Christi, Texas),
Scott Jones (Jr., College Station, Texas) and Gonzalez all recorded a pair of hits apiece.
Four Rattlers saw time on the hill against UHV (5-6) with
Ty Miles (Fr., Seguin, Texas) getting the start to toss four innings with three earned runs before
Garrett McKenzie (Jr., Aurora, Colo.) pitched one inning of relief for one earned run.
Rick Villa (RS-Sr., San Antonio) stepped in to toss 2.2 innings for two earned runs, giving way to Garcia for the win.
In his first pitching appearance of his Rattler career, Garcia held the Jaguars hitless and scoreless for 3.1 innings, striking out a team-high five batters for his first career win.
Garcia empathically denied the walk-off with the last-chance Jaguar going down hacking to end the game, leaving one runner stranded.
The winning foursome struck out 15 while scattering 10 hits.
The thrilling victory improved the Rattlers' overall record to 9-2 on the season.
Rattler Baseball returns home to Dickson Stadium to kick off Heartland Conference play with a three-games serie against provisional member Rogers State this weekend. The series begins with a doubleheader Friday starting at 2 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.
