LAWTON, Okla. – The St. Mary's Baseball team earned its second series sweep of the season with a 7-3 win at Cameron on Saturday afternoon.
The seven runs for the Rattlers (17-14, 14-13 Lone Star Conference) came on 14 hits with four Aggies (4-21, 4-17 Lone Star) errors. Cameron scored three runs on eight hits with two StMU errors.
Four different Rattlers had multi-hit days as junior
Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas) led the way with a 3-for-6 day, while senior
Derek Mueller (Carrolton, Texas), senior
Fernando Zubia (El Paso, Texas) and senior
Johnny Hernandez (El Paso) each had two hits.
Freshman
Karlo Kalifa (Round Rock, Texas) started his third game of the season and had a no decision after giving up two runs on three hits in two innings. Sophomore
Josh Buske (San Antonio) improved to 2-0 in 2021 after pitching a solid 4.1 innings where he allowed only two hits. He also walked four and struck out six. Freshman
Justin Ortega (San Antonio) and junior
Collin Storms (Lewisville, Texas) also saw action out of the bullpen.
Mueller led off the game with a single to left field but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. Mares doubled to right centerfield and moved to third on a groundout by Zubia. Sophomore
Brandon Broughton (Corpus Christi, Texas) singled to right for the first run of the afternoon.
The Aggies got the run back in their half of the first, but Kalifa worked out of a bases loaded jam.
Hernandez tripled to right to kick off the second inning and junior
Brian Juarez (Corpus Christi) walked to put runners on the corners. With one out, Juarez hustled to second on a wild pitch and both he and Hernandez moved up 90 feet on a groundout by Mueller to give the lead back to the Rattlers.
Cameron tied the contest again with one run in the second for the 2-2 score.
With two outs in the third, senior
Mitchell Caskey (Houston) drew a walk and sophomore
Mauro Bustamante (Helotes, Texas) hit a come backer to the pitcher and was safe after the ball ricocheted off his glove. Caskey got all the way to third on the play and Hernandez walked to load the bases but the Aggies got out of the jam.
A leadoff walk for the Aggies was erased on a great defensive play by Juarez. The runner jumped a little too far off base on a pitch in the dirt and Juarez snapped a throw to Broughton at first for the tag and the out. After a strikeout and two walks were issued, junior
Shawn Tober (San Antonio) made a great diving catch in left field to end the threat.
After the great defensive end to the third, Tober led off the fourth with a chopper to the left of the mound and on a barehand attempt, the pitcher overthrew first allowing Tober to get all the way to third. Mueller walked and stole second base. The catcher overthrew the bag, allowing Mueller to go to third and Tober to score to give the lead back to StMU. Mares singled to left to plate Mueller and the 4-2 lead.
With one out in the sixth, Mares doubled down the right field line and Zubia hit a ball over the right field fence for his 2nd home run of the season. Broughton was tagged in the helmet on the very next pitch. Caskey reached on another Cameron error. Hernandez hit a two-out bloop single to right and Mares scored from second base for the 7-2 tally.
Cameron scored one in the bottom of the ninth, but a double play by the Rattlers ended any hopes of a rally.
St. Mary's returns to the friendly confines of Dickson Stadium next weekend for a three-game series against Texas-Permian Basin. The teams kick things off with a doubleheader beginning at 2 p.m. on Friday and conclude the set with a single game on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Rattlers have three series left in the regular season before the Lone Star Tournament begins on May 14.
