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SAN ANTONIO — As the third straight left-handed starter on the mound this weekend,
Nathan Humpal wanted to make his stance a little different.
He did just that, recording the Rattler pitching staff's first complete game shutout on the season, and first of his career, in the Rattlers' 2-0 win over the University of Mary Sunday.
After Humpal's (Sr., Corpus Christi, Texas) stout performance, St. Mary's went on to win a blowout 10-1 victory over the Marauders (0-4) in the second game of its doubleheader, sweeping the series 4-0.
Humpal's career game saw him toss a career-most seven innings with a career-high seven strikeouts in the victory, allowing four hits and recording just one walk with a sidearm release.
"It was just to be a little different from everyone else," said Humpal of his varied pitching style from last season. "We have a lot of lefties on our team, so it's nice to distinguish yourself in a different way. I've always been able to throw sidearm so that was my plan."
Supporting Humpal on the mound was
Mario Maldonado (Jr., Laredo, Texas) who recorded both RBIs in Game One, smacking Dickson Stadium's first homer with a solo shot in the first and then recording an RBI-double in the fifth.
After Humpal's quality game,
Greg Dobb (RS-So., Keller, Texas) followed suit in his first career start on the mound to pick up his first Rattler win.
Dobb tossed six solid innings, nearly triumphing his stats last season that saw him pitch eight innings on the year, with five hits and two strikeouts.
Rick Villa (RS-Sr., San Antonio) had three innings in relief for the save, recording an impressive five strikeouts including downing three straight with a man on third in the seventh in a tight 3-1 game.
After scoring one run in the first three innings, the Rattlers blew the game open in the seventh, scoring six runs and tacking on another in the eighth to nearly see a run-rule as the claimed the 10-1 victory.
Five Rattlers had a multiple-hit game in the 17-hit Game Two victory including
Scott Jones (Jr., College Station, Texas) who went an impressive 4-5 for two RBIs.
Drake Roberts (Jr., Brenham, Texas) recorded three hits while
Brooks Orton (Jr., Cedar City, Utah),
Omar Garcia (RS-Jr., El Paso, Texas) and
Adrian Garcia (RS-Sr., El Paso, Texas) all tallied two hits apiece.
"I think it's a really good start to the season," said Humpal of the series win. "We had that tough loss in Minute Maid (against UA-Monticello) and this was nice to come back home and have a big crowd and really solidify ourselves early in the season."
The Rattlers improved to 5-1 on the season with the 4-0 series win.
The Rattlers will be back in action at 5 p.m. Tuesday when they play Houston-Victoria in Houston.
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.
