This Week in Rattlers Baseball
St. Mary's at Texas A&M International
March 13-15 // Games 23-26 // San Antonio // Dickson Stadium
Broadcast: FloCollege // Play-by-Play: Rob Shadow
Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas
Record 14-8
Ranking NR/RV/NR
Head Coach Jason Gonzales
TAMUK Record 508-364 (18th Year)
Career Record Same
St. Mary's Rattlers
Record 15-7
Ranking NR/RV/NR
Head Coach Frank Kellner
StMU Record 64-61 (3rd Year)
Career Record Same
Polls are NCBWA/ABCA/DII Baseball
By The Numbers
43 St. Mary's recorded 43 hits in the four-game series at Texas A&M International last week, the most hits in a series this seaso and the most since they had 59 at West Texas A&M March 28-30, 2025.
20 Junior Dillon Lopez has reached base safely in all 20 games in which he's played this season. Lopez is hitting .311 with 23 hits and 11 walks this year, and has hits in each of his last five and in 14 of the 20 games.
17 Senior Garrett Brooks currently ranks 17th among career active Division II players with 25 career home runs. Mackenzie Wainwright from Lenoir-Rhyne leads with 46 roundtrippers.
Week Seven: The St. Mary's Baseball team returns home to host a four-game series against Texas A&M-Kingsville. The 107 games the two have played all-time (60-46-1) is the second-longest series against Lone Star opponents, trailing only St. Edward's. The teams will play at 6 p.m. on Friday, 2 p.m. on Saturday for a doubleheader and 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Patient At The Plate: St. Mary's currently ranks ninth in the nation with 139 base on balls this season. Five Rattlers rank in the top 150 in the nation in that category, led by Ashton Beaird who ranks 29th nationally and fourth in the Lone Star with 19. Raithen Malone has walked 17 times (74), while Ryan Alaniz has drawn 16 (106) and both Garrett Brooks and Matt Mendez have walked 15 times (138). The school record for walks is 308 by the 1992 team.
No Runs For You: St. Mary's recorded its first shutout of the season with a 6-0 win on Saturday in game two at Texas A&M International. Senior Eric Tenery threw six scoreless, allowing only one hit, while Joel Burgess and Edward Mendoza pitched the final three frames, giving up two hits and striking out two.
Smash Brothers: Sophomore Ryan Alaniz and senior Garrett Brooks combined to hit four of the team's five home runs last week at Texas A&M International, and with junior Dillon Lopez have hit 16 of the team's 23 long balls this season. Brooks leads the team with seven round-trippers, which leads the Lone Star and ranks 23rd nationally, while Alaniz has smashed five, which is third in the league, and Lopez is fourth in the LSC with four.
Quality Start Times Two: Senior Eric Tenery has recorded quality starts in each of his last two outings. Against Angelo State, Tenery allowed only one run on six hits with one walk and six strikeouts in six innings. Last week at TAMIU, Tenery gave up one hit with two walks and four strikeouts in six innings of work. He has struck out at least four batters in all six starts and has only allowed four extra base hits of the 32.
Swiper, No Swiping: Junior catcher Dillon Lopez has now thrown out eight base runners attempting to steal this season. The Rattlers have caught 14 runners on the base paths in 2026.
Made to be Broken: St. Mary's turned six double plays in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday, breaking the school record of four, done 10 times in St. Mary's history. The last time the Rattlers turned four was in 2023 against Angelo State. St. Mary's has now turned 16 double plays this season, which is the fourth-most in the Lone Star.
League Leaders: St. Mary's leads the Lone Star Conference statistics in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.09), and triple plays (1). The team is also second in the LSC in home runs (23), shutouts (1), and is third in base on balls (139), sacrifice bunts (16), strikeouts per nine innings (9.0) and fewest walks allowed per nine innings (4.30).
Free Bases: Ashton Beaird is getting on base every other plate appearance. Beaird has an on-base percentage of .505 after walking 19 times and getting hit 12 more.
Gauna and Done It: Senior Kaleb Gauna currently leads the nation in games started with seven. He is one of four players in the nation with seven starts under his belt.
Cooking With Gas: Junior left-hander Gabe Cook is tied for 14th in the nation with three saves, which is second in the Lone Star Conference. He is 3 2/3 innings shy of qualifying for the remainder of the LSC and NCAA pitching statistics.
Brooks Knows Ball: One week after earning both Lone Star and NCBWA South Central Region Hitter of the Week honors, senior 1B/RF Garrett Brooks tied the school single game record for walks in a game with four. Brooks becomes the 13th Rattler in school history to be walked four times, joining Dillon Lopez on the active list, as he drew four base on balls in the LSC Tournament against St. Edward's last season.
What An Honor: 1B/RF Garrett Brooks was named both the Lone Star Conference and NCBWA South Central Region Hitter of the Week in week one. Brooks hit .444 for the three-game series at Sul Ross State, going 8-for-18 at the plate with four home runs, scoring eight times and collecting 12 RBIs. The senior also walked once and had 13 chances in the field without making an error. It is his second weekly award for both and the first since Feb. 2024.
Triple Play: St. Mary's is one of four teams in the nation to have turned a triple play this season. In the eighth inning of game two against Sul Ross State and runners on first and second base, Raithen Malone snagged a line drive, threw to Blake Allen at second, and he tossed the ball to Garrett Brooks at first, catching both runners off the bags.
Tie Goes to the Runner: In addition to getting plunked six times in the series at Sul Ross State, Ashton Beaird also tied the school record for stolen bases in a game, swiping three in game two. He is the 10th different Rattler to steal three bases, and the first since Tristan Moreno did so last season.
