SAN ANTONIO – St. Mary's Baseball has three players in the starting lineup named Jake or Jacob and the trio all had stellar games in the series finale 15-11 win against Lubbock Christian on Sunday.
Senior
Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas), junior
Jacob Elizondo (San Antonio) and freshman
Jacob King (San Antonio) accounted for nine of the team's 16 hits and 11 of the club's 14 RBI in the high-scoring affair. The 15-11 victory earned the Rattlers (10-11, 9-11 Lone Star) a split in the conference series with the Chaparrals (15-9, 15-9 Lone Star).
Every other batter in the lineup for the Gold & Blue recorded at least one hit and everyone except senior
Clay Bradford (Atascocita, Texas) scored at least one run, led by the three from Elizondo.
The Rattlers also drew seven walks in the game, with Bradford earning two base on balls – both on four pitches.
St. Mary's trailed for only a half-inning as LCU scored one in the third. The Rattlers immediately answered with three in the third. The scoreboard for the fourth looked identical with the Chaps scoring one and StMU three. Both offenses kept things rolling as StMU scored four each in the fifth and sixth, while LCU scored five in the sixth and four in the eighth. StMU got one run back in the bottom of the eighth for the 15-11 total.
Freshman
Kaleb Gauna (Hondo, Texas) was credited with the win after pitching 2.1 innings in relief of senior
Josh Buske (San Antonio). Buske went 3.1 frames, allowing two runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts. Gauna surrendered two earned runs on four hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Junior
Andrew Girod (San Antonio) picked up his second save of the weekend, pitching the final 3.1 innings, allowing four runs on five hits with one walk and two strikeouts.
The Rattlers hit the road next week for a four-game set at Angelo State, beginning on Friday, March 17 at 6:30 p.m.
