Box Score AUSTIN, Texas – The St. Mary's Baseball team scored the first two runs in the opening game of the Lone Star Conference Tournament, but #13 St. Edward's responded with the next 12 for the run-rule victory in eight innings.
The Rattlers (25-26) scored their two runs on three hits as the top three in the batting order each posted one in senior
Jake Mares (Fort Worth, Texas), freshman
Jacob King (San Antonio) and senior
Clay Bradford (Atascocita, Texas).
Mares singled to shortstop in the top of the third to push his school-record hitting streak to 26 straight games.
Senior
Connor Schmidt allowed four unearned runs in taking the loss. He didn't give up a hit but walked six and struck out four to fall to 5-3 on the season. He also committed one of the the three erors on the day for the Rattlers, overthrowing first on a sacrifice bunt attempt by the Toppers. Junior
Matt Bundy worked 4.2 innings, allowing eight runs on nine hits with two walks and four strikeouts. Freshman
Kaleb Gauna had just entered the game when the winning run scored on a wild pitch.
King reached via an error with one out in the top of the first. Bradford tripled down the right field line to plate King and give the Rattlers a 1-0 lead.
Schmidt worked out of a bases loaded jam, leaving the bases loaded in the bottom of the second with a strikeout of Connor Cox.
Mares hit a high chopper on the infield to single to shortstop and King followed with a double that skipped past the left fielder to plate the speedy Mares from first to double the lead, 2-0.
The Hilltoppers pushed four across each in the fourth, sixth and eighth innings for the 12-2 victory.
The two teams take to the diamond in a must-win situation for the Rattlers. First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. due to graduation on the SEU campus. Please visit the St. Edward's
website for parking information as it is extremely limited on campus.
