Box Score, Game 1
Box Score, Game 2
STEPHENVILLE – Chris Casazza tied his season-high in home runs with a two-run, walk-off shot to dead center field that gave the Texans a 6-4 win in game one. Tarleton then plated home eight runs in the seventh inning of game two to complete a doubleheader sweep of Southwestern Oklahoma at Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex in Stephenville on Saturday.
The Texans finished the weekend with a 3-1 series win over the Bulldogs and improved to 22-21 overall and above the .500 mark since the first series of the season. Tarleton now stands at 18-18 in the Lone Star Conference and move a half game ahead of Eastern New Mexico who still has three games to play against Central Oklahoma.
The Bulldogs meanwhile fall to 20-23 overall and stand at 14-19 in the LSC, 4.5 games back of the Texans.
SWOSU opened the scoring in the first game on Jon-Andrew Martin's run batted in-single to make it a 1-0 game, but Tarleton countered in the bottom of the inning as Casazza connected on his first home run of the day. With a pair of runners on base, the junior right fielder hit a towering shot to deep left field – hiis 11th of the season – to make it a 3-1 game in favor of the Texans.
The Bulldogs tied it up in the third inning when Nelson Espinal scored on a sacrifice fly from Michael Felton and Louie Lancaster later scored on a wild pitch. SWOSU then took the lead in the top of the fourth on Jonathan Bertrand's sacrifice fly. Ryan Salsbury scored giving the Bulldogs a one-run advantage, 4-3.
Tarleton tied it up in the bottom of the inning on Charlie Ulbricht's RBI-single that scored Nathan Hille on the play.
The Texans were unable to bring in a run over the next six outs, but with one out in the bottom of the seventh, Mark Jeffery drew a walk with a full-count and Casazza drove the first pitch he saw over the 20-foot center-field fence to give the Texans the walk-off victory. It was Casazza's 12th long ball of the season, tying his home run total from last season.
Nathan Lewis (4-4) picked up the win working the final two innings in relief. He didn't allow a base runner and struck out two of the six batters he faced. Miguel Ramirez started the game for the Texans and allowed four runs on five hits while getting the no-decision.
SWOSU's Jason Stover (4-5) took the complete-game loss, allowing all six runs on eight hits. He walked five and struck out six.
Casazza, Junnior Dishmey and Zane Hensley had two hits each in the game to lead the Texans at the plate. Casazza drove in five of the six runs and Ulbricht drove in the other.
Dishmey led off the second game with a solo-home run in the bottom of the first. He hit the first pitch that was thrown to him over the right field fence to give the Texans an early 3-0 lead.
The Texans added to the lead in the top of third with a RBI-single from Hensley. Casazza scored later on a throwing error by the catcher and Hensley scored following an error on the third baseman to give the Texans a four-run lead.
The Texans coughed up the lead though in the top of the fourth when the Bulldogs brought in four runs on four hits and one error to tie the game 4-4. Tarleton countered though in the bottom of the inning on another RBI hit from Hensley, this time a double to left-center that scored Andrew Kapple on the play.
Tarleton broke the game wide open in the seventh inning, scoring eight runs and coming within a run of ending the game on a 10-run-rule. Hille singled home a run and Landon McCall later brought home a run on his bases loaded walk to make it 6-4. Ulbricht then singled up the middle driving in two runs and Kapple followed with a three-run dinger to left field. All seven runs were scored with no outs, but the Bulldogs managed to get out of the inning allowing just one more run to score, a sacrifice fly from Heath Petty, but the damage was done and Tarleton led 13-4 after seven innings.
Both teams scored runs in the eighth to make it 14-5 and SWOSU then plated in two runs in the top of the ninth inning before Kenneth Stockton was able to get the final out and end the game with the Texans winning, 14-7.
SWOSU's Tyler Overton (2-3) was responsible for the loss after coming into the game in the third inning. He allowed eight of the fourteen runs off 13 hits in 4.0 innings of work.
Brandon Van Riper (3-3) got the start for the Texans and picked up the win working four complete innings and allowing four runs on four hits. Brandon Greer got a hold for the Texans after coming into the game with the score 5-4 in favor of Tarleton. He threw 4.0 innings and allowed just one run on one hit.
Ulbricht, Hensley and Taylor James each had three hits in the game to lead the Texans at the plate.
Tarleton will go the week without any non-conference games and will have the whole week to prepare for a very important conference series with Cameron. The four-game series will begin next Friday at 1 p.m. in Lawton, Okla.
