Baseball Drops a Heartbreaker at LCU

LUBBOCK, Texas – Emotions ran high and low for the St. Mary's Baseball team as they lost a heartbreaker in the series finale at Lubbock Christian on Sunday, falling 12-11.
 
The Rattlers (4-6, 2-6 Lone Star Conference) took a 5-0 lead, saw the Chaps (9-3, 9-3 Lone Star) score seven in the fourth. They regained the lead on a grand slam by junior Brian Juarez and stretched the lead to four, 11-7 before LCU scored four in the eighth and walked it off in the ninth on a pinch-hit home run.
 
Juarez was 3-for-5 on the day with a walk and the grand slam was the first of his St. Mary's career. Senior Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas) was on base five times with two hits and three walks while junior Brandon Broughton reached three times with two base knocks and a base on balls. Broughton and Juarez, both products of Calallen High School in Corpus Christi, combined for seven of the team's 11 RBI.
 
StMU scored its 11 runs on 12 hits and were helped by a pair of Chaps errors, while LCU scored 12 runs on 11 hits with four Rattler miscues.
 
Senior Connor Schmidt (Devine, Texas) took the loss on the hill. He gave up two runs on two hits with two strikeouts in an inning of work. Senior Steven Medrano (El Paso, Texas) pitched the first four innings. He allowed five earned runs on seven hits, walking four and fanning four. Senior Adrian Gonzales (Pasadena, Texas) was extremely effective in his first outing of 2022, walking one and striking out three without allowing a hit in 2.1 innings. Both Andrew Girod (San Antonio) and Brett Brown (Sinton, Texas) also saw time on the bump.
 
The Rattlers return home to Dickson Field to host Angelo State for a four-game series. The set against the 12th-ranked team in the nation begins Friday at 5 p.m.