SAN ANTONIO – The St. Mary's Baseball team saw both ends of the spectrum on Saturday, as game one of the doubleheader was a pitching gem and game two was an offensive comeback as the Rattlers won both against Texas A&M International.
Senior left-handed pitcher Zach De la Garza (San Antonio) threw a one-hit shutout in the 7-0 game one win, while the team came back in the eighth inning of game two for the 9-6 victory. With the wins, the Rattlers improve to 9-6 on the season and 7-5 in Lone Star Conference action, while the Dust Devils fall to 5-10 in both.
The Rattlers hit .371 as a team over the twinbill and both senior Fernie Zubia (El Paso, Texas) and junior
Brian Juarez (Corpus Christi, Texas) were 4-for-8 with a pair of walks on the day, while junior
Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas) was 2-for-4 with three walks, two sacrifice hits and he was hit once. Junior
Ryan McGowen (San Antonio) hit the lone home run of the day – a solo shot in the second inning of game two.
St. Mary's heads to Kingsville next weekend for a three-game series at Texas A&M-Kingsville. They are slated to start on Friday at 6 p.m. with a doubleheader beginning at 2 on Saturday.
GAME ONE RECAP
De la Garza pitched a gem, throwing a one-hit shutout in 97 pitches. He retired the last 22 batters he faced and struck out seven with no walks. It is the first shutout for the Rattlers since the opening game of the 2020 season, a 5-0 victory over Cameron – a game in which DLG pitched the first six innings.
It was the third complete-game shutout of De la Garza's career, and the first nine inning contest. In 2018, he shut down Tarleton State on Feb. 10, allowing three hits in seven innings and on April 27, he allowed seven hits by the Dust Devils but no runs.
Juarez was 3-for-5 for the Rattlers with a double, a run scored and an RBI. Mares was 2-for-3, scoring once and driving in one and McGowen was 2-for-4 with two RBIs. All nine hitters reached base at least once and seven of the nine spots recorded at least one hit.
StMU scored seven runs on 11 hits with two Dust Devil errors, while TAMIU had just the one hit – a single by J. Villareal in the second inning.
The Rattlers broke onto the scoreboard early. With one out in the bottom of the first, Mares and senior
Mitchell Caskey (Houston) drew back-to-back walks. Mares was called out on a close play at third on a double steal attempt and a Juarez double allowed Caskey to score from second base.
In the second, Zubia started things off by drawing a base on balls. Sophomore
Mauro Bustamante (San Antonio) singled back up the middle and junior
Shawn Tober (San Antonio) laid down a great bunt to advance both runners 90 feet. McGowen singled to left, plating both for the 3-0 advantage.
With one out in the fourth, Tober was plunked by a pitch on a full count and McGowen bunted for a single as the ball rolled to the right of the pitcher's mound. With two outs, Mares singled in the hole left by the short stop covering second and Tober scampered home for the fourth run of the game.
Juarez continued his good day with a single to center with one out in the seventh. Senior
Johnny Hernandez (El Paso) walked and Zubia doubled down the right field line, missing a home run by a few feet to knock in the team's fifth run of the contest.
Senior
Derek Mueller (Carrolton, Texas) singled back up the middle to lead off the eighth. Mares bunted just out in front of home plate and the catcher attempted to get Mueller at second, but he overthrew the bag, allowing Mueller to hustle to third. A deep single to right field by Caskey plated Mueller and Mares touched home after a sacrifice fly to right by Hernandez to increase the lead to 7-0.
GAME TWO RECAP
The Rattlers used five pitchers with senior
Johnny Panatex (Pflugerville, Texas) getting the victory. He threw the final 1.2 innings, allowing two hits and striking out one. Senior
Dylan Bells (Regina, Saskatchewan) pitched the first five innings, surrendering one earned run on four hits with three walks and four strikeouts.
Collin Storms (Lewisville, Texas),
Karlo Kalifa (Round Rock, Texas) and
Josh Buske (San Antonio) also each worked during the middle innings.
Zubia paced the Rattlers, going 3-for-4 with three RBIs in the nightcap, while junior
Mac Papini (San Antonio), Tober and McGowen each totaled two hits as the Blue & Gold scored nine runs on 12 hits while the Dust Devils scored six runs on nine hits and each team committed one error.
The Dust Devils scored two runs on one hit and an error to begin the second game. With one out in the bottom half of the inning, Mares was hit on the shoulder and Caskey walked on four straight pitches. Juarez worked a walk to load the bases and Hernandez hit a sacrifice fly to left to score Mares and cut the deficit in half, 2-1.
McGowen tied the score with his third home run of the year, blasting one over the left centerfield wall with one out in the second.
TAMIU regained the lead with one run in the top of the fourth for the 3-2 tally.
With one out in the fifth, Hernandez doubled to the flag pole in right-center. His fellow El Paso teammate, Zubia doubled to the opposite side, hitting one to almost to the wall in left-center to tie the score at 3-3. A pinch hit single through the right side by Papini gave the Rattlers their first lead of the contest, 4-3.
A pair of walks, a balk and a groundout helped the Dust Devils tie the game again at 4-4. One batter later they regained the lead with a single to left field. They added one run in the top of the seventh to stretch the lead to two, 6-4.
Juarez reached on a throwing error by the first baseman and Hernandez was hit in the numbers. Zubia hit into a fielder's choice that erased Hernandez but moved Juarez to third. Papini doubled off the top of the wall in left center to score Juarez, but Zubia was thrown out at the plate as the Rattlers closed within one, 6-5.
A four pitch walk to Mueller started the eighth and he was bunted over to second by Mares. Caskey doubled to right center to knot the score again, 6-6. Freshman
CJ Ricondo (San Antonio) came into pinch run and Juarez walked, forcing TAMIU to go to the pen. Hernandez walked to load the bags and Zubia gave the Rattlers the lead with a single through the right side that scored a pair. With two outs, Tober singled to right center and Hernandez scored to make it the final score of 9-6.
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