Baseball Takes Series With Saturday Senior Day Split

SAN ANTONIO – It wasn't the most conventional of Senior Days, hosting on a neutral field across town, but the St. Mary's Baseball team made the most of it winning the series against Eastern New Mexico 3-1 with a doubleheader split on Saturday.
 
The Rattlers (22-24, 20-24 Lone Star) won game one 9-7 in seven innings, while the Greyhounds (22-23, 20-23 LSC) won the nightcap 10-5 in nine innings.
 
The nine seniors on the roster, Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas), Brian Juarez (Corpus Christi, Texas), Ryan McGowen (San Antonio), Brandon Broughton (Corpus Christi), Steven Medrano (El Paso, Texas), Brett Brown (Sinton, Texas), Connor Schmidt (Devine, Texas), John Curtis (Athens, Tenn.), and Caden Floyd (Corpus Christi) were honored between games and joined by their families on the field. 
 
The team concludes the regular season at Cameron beginning on Friday at 6 p.m. The Aggies have already won the series at Oklahoma Christian and play game four on Sunday.
 
GAME ONE RECAP
Curtis, the defending LSC pitcher of the week, was a bit shaky at the start, but settled down to get the victory and move to 4-4 on the year. He allowed two earned runs on six hits with six walks and five strikeouts. Junior Matt Bundy (Whitehouse, Texas) worked the final 1.1 frames, giving up one run on two hits with a walk and a strikeout.
 
Senior Clay Bradford (Atascocita, Texas) – who will return for his fifth season – went 3-for-3 with two RBI, while both sophomore Jacob Elizondo (San Antonio) and McGowen had two hit games.
 
The Rattlers spotted the Greyhounds four runs in the first inning on no hits, but StMU chipped away at the deficit.
 
In the second with two outs, Elizondo hit a sharp comebacker to the pitcher for a single and he scored on a double to in the gap to left center by freshman Ryan Romine (San Antonio). ENMU got the run back in the top of the third to lead 5-1.
 
Freshman Jacob King (San Antonio) tripled to right center to kick things off in the fifth. Bradford and Broughton followed with back-to-back doubles to the middle of the park. Broughton advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on a single to left by junior Easton Parrish (La Vernia, Texas). With one out, Elizondo placed a bunt perfectly into no man's land to the right of the pitcher's mound. Romine hit into a fielder's choice back to the pitcher, but the second baseman dropped the ball allowing everyone to be safe. McGowen walked to push a run across, and Mares singled to deep at shortstop. Bradford was walked and Broughton hit by a pitch to give the Rattlers an 8-5 advantage. The team scored seven runs on six hits as 13 Rattlers came to the plate.
 
An error on a dropped ball at first put Rudy Solis (El Paso) on base to start the sixth. With one out, Solis advanced on a groundout by Romine and scored on a single to left field by McGowen for the 9-5 lead. ENMU scored two in the seventh, but Bundy worked out of a jam for the 9-7 final.
 
GAME TWO RECAP
Despite outhitting the Greyhounds 10 to nine, the Rattlers fell short in the runs column 10-5 in the finale.
 
Bradford, Parrish, Solis and McGowen all had two-hit contests as five of the team's 10 hits were for extra bases. 
 
Freshman Billy Baehr (San Antonio) moved to 1-3 on the season with the loss. He allowed three earned runs on six hits as 28 of his 41 pitches were for strikes. Brown worked 0.2 of an inning and Bundy pitched the final five, shutting down the ENMU offense. He gave up two hits, walking one and striking out four in his second appearance of the day.
 
Once again, ENMU struck first, scoring one run in the first. The Rattlers knotted the game in the second as Parrish blasted a home run over the centerfield fence. It is the third home run of the season for the junior.
 
The Greyhounds plated four runs in the third and five in the fourth to take a 10-1 lead.
 
King walked to lead off the fourth, as did Broughton with one out. With two outs, Solis singled to left field and King scored from second.
 
In the sixth with one out Bradford doubled to left center, moved to third on a deep flyout to centerfield by Broughton and scored on a single through the right side by Parrish for the 10-3 tally.
 
With two outs in the seventh McGowen narrowly missed a home run, hitting one off the fence in left center for a double. Mares drove a ball up the middle to extend his hitting streak to 21 games and McGowen scored.
 
Bradford led off the eighth with a solo shot to left center to cut the deficit to 10-5 but the Rattlers were unable to get any closer.