Baseball Starts Series With Fourth-Straight Win

KINGSVILLE, Texas – The St. Mary's Baseball team kept the offense going in a 9-5 victory in the first of a four-game series at Texas A&M-Kingsville on Friday evening.
 
The Rattlers have won four straight contests and five of the last six, scoring nine or more runs in the last three to improve to 16-15 overall and 14-15 in Lone Star Conference play.
 
Senior Connor Schmidt (Devine, Texas) had his third consecutive solid start, allowing four runs on four hits with five walks and three strikeouts to improve to 4-0 on the year. Junior Andrew Girod (San Antonio) earned his fifth save in the last six appearances, pitching the final three innings. He surrendered one run on two hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
 
Freshman Jacob King (San Antonio) was 3-for-5 on the night with one runs scored, while the middle of the lineup tallied six of the team's 13 hits as Brandon Broughton (Corpus Christi, Texas), Easton Parrish (La Vernia, Texas) and Rudy Solis (El Paso, Texas) each had two hits. The trio also combined for seven of the team's nine runs and five of the six RBI.
 
Kobe Jaramillo took the loss for the Javelinas. He allowed six earned runs on 10 hits with one walk and seven strikeouts to fall to 2-3 on the year. TAMUK used two other pitchers in the contest.
 
Solis wasted no time in extending his reached base safely streak, doubling in the second inning to put him on base in 13 straight. Broughton led off the frame with a single to centerfield, moved to second on a groundout by Parrish and scored on Solis' double down the left field line. Jake Elizondo (San Antonio) walked and Solis took third on a passed ball. Solis scored on the double steal attempt, but Elizondo was thrown out at second after Solis crossed the plate for the 2-0 lead.
 
Clay Bradford (Atascocita, Texas) doubled to begin the fourth and with one out, Parrish hit his team-leading 10th two-bagger, taking the ball to left center to plate Bradford. With two outs, Devin Goins (San Antonio) singled up the middle to drive in Parrish for the 4-0 advantage.
 
King reached on a fielder's choice in the fifth and came around on a home run to left field by Broughton for another two runs and a 6-0 score.
 
In the sixth, Solis hit his first home run in a Rattlers uniform, taking a 2-1 pitch over the left centerfield wall for the seventh run.
 
The Javelinas used a long ball of their own, along with a triple to cut the lead to 7-4 in the bottom of the sixth.
 
Parrish led off the eighth with a single up the middle and Solis was hit by a pitch. Goins was willing to sacrifice himself to advance the runners, but the pitcher overthrew the ball and both Parrish and Solis came around to score, making it 9-4.
 
Nick Wolff hit his second homerun of the game for the Javelinas to make the scoreboard read 9-5 in the eighth, which it would remain the rest of the night.
 
The two teams return to the diamond on Saturday for a doubleheader. First pitch in game one is scheduled for 2 p.m.