PORTALES, N.M. – In a game that saw 29 runs scored on 27 hits with 20 walks, the St. Mary's Baseball team ended on the short side, 17-12 at Eastern New Mexico on Sunday.
The Rattlers (12-22, 10-22 Lone Star Conference) walked 10 Greyhounds (14-18, 13-17 Lone Star) and had eight wild pitches in the back-and-forth affair. ENMU scored 17 runs on 13 hits with one StMU error, while the Rattlers scored 12 runs on 14 hits with three Greyhound errors. StMU also left 13 men on base after drawing 10 walks of their own.
Junior
Brandon Broughton (Corpus Christi, Texas) went 3-for-4 at the plate with a pair of doubles and three RBIs to pace the offense, while seniors
Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas),
Ryan McGowen (San Antonio) and sophomore Jake Elizondo (San Antonio) each recorded two hits with two doubles, a home run and four RBIs between the seniors.
Sophomore
Karlo Kalifa (Round Rock, Texas) fell to 1-4 with the loss. He came on in relief of
Andrew Girod (San Antonio) and allowed four runs on one hit with three walks and a strikeout in 1.1 innings of work. Girod pitched the first 3.1 innings and four other hurlers took the bump after Kalifa in the series finale.
As they've done in every other game of the series, the Rattlers scored in the top of the first. Elizondo singled through the right side and moved to second on a fielding error by the shortstop on a ball off the bat of junior
Clay Bradford (Atoscocita, Texas). The duo attempted a double steal, but Elizondo was thrown out at third. Broughton doubled to left center to plate Bradford and junior
Rudy Solis (El Paso, Texas) followed with a single to right to plate Broughton and the 2-0 lead.
The Greyhounds scored two in the bottom of the first and a single and triple in the bottom of the second gave them the 3-2 advantage.
A Bradford first-pitch home run knotted the score with one out in the third. A leadoff triple by ENMU came around to score on a groundout to give the lead right back to the home squad, 4-3.
Sophomore
Devin Goins (San Antonio) and McGowen reached on back-to-back fielding errors by the shortstop to lead off the top of the fourth. The duo moved up on a wild pitch and Mares made ENMU pay with a double to left center to score both. With one out, Bradford drew a four-pitch walk and Broughton followed with a double to center to score a pair, forcing ENMU to the bullpen with the score 7-4.
Two walks, a single and a wild pitch led to one run for the Greyhounds in the bottom of the fourth for the 7-5 tally.
With one out in the fifth, Goins singled to shortstop and scored when McGowen blasted a shot over the fence in center to stretch the lead to four, 9-5. Four walks, three base hits and an error led to an eight-run inning for the Greyhounds as they regained the lead, 13-9. ENMU tacked on two runs in each the sixth and the eighth to stretch their advantage to 17-9.
In the top of the ninth, the Rattlers got three runs back for the 17-12 final. Mares walked with one out and moved to second on a single through the right side by Elizondo. They both moved up 90 feet on a wild pitch and a walk to Bradford loaded the bases. With two outs, Solis walked for a run and two scored on a single up the middle by
Ty Luper (League City, Texas).
The Rattlers return home to host Cameron for a four-game series beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. The Aggies just went 1-3 in a series against Oklahoma Christian.
