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Box Score 2 GEORGETOWN, Texas — Gathered around a single laptop at a restaurant on the way back to San Antonio after a devastating loss to St. Edward's in the Heartland Conference Championship title game, St. Mary's Baseball watched the NCAA Division-II regional selection show.
Brooks Orton (Jr., Cedar City, Utah) paced outside looking in through the window as the tension built as each regional bracket began to be named Sunday night.
With hearts already bruised in watching St. Edward's dog pile the field of Georgetown High School after winning the Heartland title 10-6 in a do-or-die game after the Rattlers took the first game defiantly 7-6, the Snakes took another punch.
For the first time in five years, St. Mary's Baseball would not be advancing to the NCAA D-II South Central Regional.
A stunned disappointment and sadness immediately spread through the Rattlers as head coach
Charlie Migl made it real.
"That's it boys," said a visibly saddened Migl.
The Rattlers filed out quietly after seeing a tremendous season come to end abruptly hours after pouring it all out in two championship games.
Some nine hours before the heartbreak in a fast food restaurant, St. Mary's Baseball came as amped as ever to Georgetown High School field Sunday determined to unleash vengeance on long-stemmed rival St. Edward's, which entered championship day without a loss in the double-elimination bracket.
The Rattlers entered championship day with one loss after St. Edward's took the winner's bracket, narrowly beating St. Mary's 3-2 in Day 2 of the tournament.
Adrian Garcia (RS-Sr., El Paso, Texas) wanted the ball and got it, starting Game 1 of championship day in the first start of his career.
Garcia pitched a quality game, going a career-high 7 2/3 innings with a career-high eight strikeouts.
The Hilltoppers held a 3-0 lead until the sixth when the Rattler bats lit up, scoring a demanding five runs to take a 5-3 lead.
A trio of singles loaded the bases for the Rattlers in the sixth, giving
Omar Garcia (RS-Jr., El Paso, Texas) an RBI after drawing a walk to put the Snakes on the board.
The Rattlers then got another easy one, scoring off a balk to bring it within one, 3-2, with bases still loaded and no outs for
Scott Jones (Jr., College Station, Texas).
Jones sliced one up the middle to score two and give the Rattlers a 4-3 lead.
Nathan Humpal (Sr., Corpus Christi, Texas) ended the five-run inning with an RBI-single that scored Jones who rounded third yelling in excitement at the Rattlers' dugout, putting the Rattlers up 5-3.
Jones then added another RBI-single in the seventh before the Toppers added three runs off three hits in eighth to make it a tie 6-6 ballgame.
Joe Hermsen (Jr., Overland Park, Kan.) then hit in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth, making the Rattlers three outs away from being one game closer to the title.
Garrett McKenzie closed out the ninth for the Rattlers, picking up his first win on the season, lighting a outpour of thrill from the Rattlers who took one off of the No. 1-seeded Toppers.
Into the second game they went.
Now with both teams on an even playing field with one loss, Game 2 Sunday was heavy with intensity in a rivalry that was as apparent and heated as ever.
The Snakes badly wanted to strip away the Toppers' second straight Heartland Tournament title as badly as the Toppers wanted to deny the Rattlers and things got hot.
St. Mary's started off fired up and quick, scoring two runs in the top of the first and added another off an
Al Gonzalez (RS-So., Pasadena, Texas) solo homer in the second in the Rattlers' fourth homer for the tournament.
The Toppers then fired back with a solo shot of their own in the bottom of the second before scoring a loud six runs in the third for a 7-3 lead.
Freshman
Oscar Sepulveda then took the hill in the fourth, relieving
Rick Villa (RS-Sr., San Antonio) who took over for starting pitching McKenzie, in what would be another career performance for the Rattlers.
Sepulveda retired his first 10 batters, holding the No. 7 nationally ranked Hilltoppers (39-14) hitless and scoreless until the eighth.
Going into the seventh with a 7-3 deficit, the Rattlers made it interesting once more with a three-run homer from
Drake Roberts (Jr., Brenham, Texas) that brought it within one, 7-6.
What was a stake begin to take hard realization for both teams as the end of the game drew near as dugouts began growing louder and wilder with a warning issue on the Topper dugout in the eighth.
The Rattlers were peeking at an upset down just one run going into the eighth but that's when the Toppers struck, slicing a bases clearing double to make it a 10-6 game.
The Snakes were unable to chip away at the lead in their final at-bat in the top of the ninth, ending what would the last game of their season with an incredible fight.
Matt McClain (Jr., San Antonio), Jones, Gonzalez, and
Keith Funk (RS-So., San Antonio) were all named All-Tournament Team in the Rattlers' stunning run at the Heartland title.
The Rattlers ended their 2014 campaign ranked No. 22 in the nation with a 35-20 overall record.
