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Box Score 2 GEORGETOWN, Texas — After a devastating loss to rival St. Edward's that could've put St. Mary's Baseball straight into the Heartland Conference championship title game, the Snakes needed a big performance in order to stay alive.
And boy did they get one.
The Rattlers dropped a heartbreaking 3-2 loss to St. Edward's, scoring both runs off solo home runs, in Game 3 of the Heartland Conference Tournament Saturday, putting them in a must-win Game 4 in the double-elimination bracket.
The Rattlers once again faced Newman, which they beat in the tournament's opening round, only to down them once more, 6-0, under the heels of freshman
Ty Miles.
Miles' lights out performance kept the Rattlers breathing and able to fight for their fifth straight conference title, advancing them into the title game against St. Edward's at Noon Sunday.
Miles, a Seguin, Texas native, entered Saturday's do-or-die matchup with the Jets in just his second career start in clearly his best performance of the season.
Taking the mound with 21 innings pitched with 17 season strikeouts, Miles tossed a complete, nine-inning shutout and fanned 12 in a premier showing when the Rattlers needed him most.
"My drive tonight was pretty much for my seniors," said Miles who recorded his third career win Saturday. "The pitchers who have taught me everything since day one. I just wanted to come out with a big victory so we could come out tomorrow and play for the championship and head to regionals."
The 6-0 win marked Miles' first career complete game, shutout, passed his career-high innings pitched and set a career-high strikeout count at 12.
Miles struck out at least one batter in seven of his nine innings, ended four innings with a strikeout and had four innings with two strikeouts.
Miles did most of his work with the support of just one run, a solo homer from
Omar Garcia (RS-Jr., El Paso, Texas) in the second in the Rattlers' third homer on the day, until the Rattlers' last at-bat in the ninth.
"I knew our bats would come through eventually," said Miles who walked just one batter in the victory. "It happens, it's baseball and we ended up finding our groove and I was able to continue to put up zeros to help us win."
The Rattlers' bats sparked in their last at-bat in the top of the ninth after recording two hits on the day with their last being in the fifth.
The Snakes picked up four hits to put a five-spot with the help of two Jet errors in the ninth to take a 6-0 lead, starting off with
Adrian Garcia (RS-Sr., El Paso, Texas) recording an RBI-single with bases loaded.
Mario Maldonado (Jr., Laredo, Texas) then reached on a throwing error that scored another before
Drake Roberts (Jr., Brenham, Texas) drew an RBI-walk.
Al Gonzalez (RS-So., Pasadena, Texas) then drove it home, smacking a two-RBI single to end the Rattlers' five-run inning.
Miles was handed the ball and the chance for the complete game for the Jets' last at-bat with five more insurance runs, striking out his final two batters on the night.
The Rattlers badly needed a pick-me-up after the Game 3 loss to St. Edward's that was as heated as it could ever be with the Rattlers just shy of giving the Hilltoppers the loss.
Rene Solis (Sr., San Antonio) finished the game on the wrong end of the pitcher's duel, falling to 11-4 on the season.
The Rattlers split now has them at 34-19 on the season.
The Rattlers will need to beat rival SEU twice in order to claim the conference crown with Game 6 starting at Noon Sunday.
Live video and stats of the game can be found
here.
