Baseball Wins Regular Season Finale and Earns Spot in LSC Tournament

FORT SMITH, Ark. – Entering this weekend, the St. Mary's Baseball Team needed to at least split the series at UAFS and get a little help from Cameron and the Rattlers won three of four, plus the Aggies defeated Texas A&M International 12-5 on Sunday, securing the eight seed for the Rattlers in the upcoming Lone Star Conference Tournament.
 
The Rattlers (23-27, 21-27 Lone Star) defeated the Lions (16-28) 7-3 in the regular season finale for both teams, scoring the seven runs on eight hits with four UAFS errors. The Lions scored three on nine hits with one Rattler miscue.
 
Adrian Gonzales (Pasadena, Texas) pitched 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on eight hits with two walks and three strikeouts in his fourth consecutive start to improve to 2-0. Senior Dylan Bells (Regina, Saskatchewan) earned his first save of the year pitching the final 3.2 innings and only allowing one hit while striking out five.
 
Both sophomore Jake Elizondo (San Antonio) and senior Brian Juarez (Corpus Christi, Texas) had two hits each, while senior Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas), junior Brandon Broughton (Corpus Christi) and junior Rudy Solis (El Paso, Texas) scored two runs each. 
 
As they've done throughout the series, the Rattlers broke onto the scoreboard first. Mares walked, stole second and scampered to third when the catcher missed second on the throw down. A groundout by Clay Bradford (Atoscocita, Texas) scored Mares. Broughton walked and Solis was hit by a pitch. Juarez singled up the middle to score Broughton and a dropped pop fly just inside fair territory down the third base line off the bat of Ryan McGowen (San Antonio) allowed Solis to score for the 3-0 lead.
 
With one out in the second, Mares singled back up the box and stole second on the first pitch. A wild pitch that went behind Elizondo moved Mares to third and a ground out to short by Elizondo plated Mares for the 4-0 advantage.
 
After the Lions scored one in the bottom of the second, Broughton doubled to deep right-center to lead off the third and the Lions went to the bullpen. Solis drew a five-pitch walk and a single to shallow to centerfield by Juarez loaded the bases. McGowen nubbed a single down the first base line where he avoided the tag attempt by the pitcher scored one. Freshman Tyler Pauly (Fisher, Texas) hit into a double play, but Solis scored for the 6-1 score.
 
A solo home run in the bottom of the fourth by the Lions cut the score to 6-2 and they plated one in the sixth to cut the lead in half, 6-3.
 
Elizondo doubled to the wall in right centerfield to lead off the seventh. Bradford laid down a terrific bunt down the first base line and a throwing error by the pitcher allowed Elizondo to score to get the lead back to four, 7-3.
 
The Rattlers will travel to San Angelo to face top-seeded Angelo State in the opening round of the Lone Star Conference Tournament. The teams will play a best-of-three series. Stay tuned to rattlerathletics.com for further game and time announcements.