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ABILENE – For the second straight year the Tarleton Texans eliminated Southeastern Oklahoma in the Lone Star Conference Baseball Championships, downing the Savage Storm 6-2 in an elimination game at Crutcher Scott Field in Abilene on Saturday.
The win keeps Tarleton alive in the double-elimination formatted tournament and the Texans will move on to play again tomorrow at 3 p.m. Tarleton's opponent is still yet to be determined. If Texas A&M-Kingsville defeats Abilene Christian, the Texans will meet the Javelinas in another elimination game. If ACU wins, the Texans will face the winner between tonight's Cameron/Angelo State game.
Neither team scored in the first two innings and then after shutting down the Savage Strom in the top of third, the Texans drove in a pair of runs on Chris Casazza's run batted in-single and Zane Hensley's sacrifice fly to put Tarleton up 2-0.
Following a scoreless fourth inning and top of the fifth, Casazza cranked his 16th home run of the season – his sixth career home run at Crutcher Scott Field – to give the Texans a three-run lead.
Miguel Ramirez worked a very good first six innings on the mound before being relieved in the top of the seventh after giving up a two-run base hit by Seth Dutton. Dutton's hit pulled the Savage Storm to within a run of the Texans, forcing Tarleton head coach Bryan Conger to bring in his closer, Nathan Lewis.
Lewis came into the game and walked the first batter he faced, but settled down to get the next two hitters out on a pop-up and a ground ball to end both the half-inning and the threat.
Tarleton countered with another home run, a two-run shot from Andrew Kapple, which put the Texans on top 5-2 and heading into the eighth.
Lewis did exactly what he needed to do to get the Texans back up to the plate, recording a three-up three-down inning that took only 10 pitches. Tarleton then rewarded the pitcher with an insurance run in the bottom of the inning as Nathan Hille reached base on an error from the shortstop that allowed Mark Jeffery to score an make it a 6-2 game.
Lewis recorded another one-two-three inning to close out the game despite walking the second batter of the inning. With one out, Lewis got Robbie Morris to hit into a double-play on an 0-1 fastball that went second base to shortstop over the first and give the Texans the win.
Lewis picked up his ninth save of the year, breaking Keith Westberry's school record of eight saves that he set back in 1991. The junior right-hander lowered his earned run average to 1.87 in the process and is now just 0.04 points away from breaking the school record for lowest ERA (1.84 – Juan Camacho, 1994) in a season.
Ramirez (3-0) picked up the win after allowing just the two runs on eight hits and striking out three batters he faced.
Casazza and Tim Rainey recorded two hits each on the day, while five other Texan players collected a hit each. Casazza raised his batting average to .377 on the season and increased his team-leading RBI total to 58 on the year.
SOSU's David Cagle (4-3) was on the hook for the loss, allowing three runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings of work.
The Savage Storm (32-21) came into the tournament ranked No. 5 in the region, but could be in trouble for an at-large bid into the South Central Regional Tournament. Last season Cameron came into the tournament ranked No. 1 in the region before a pair of losses, including a loss to the Texans in the opening round, knocked the Aggies out of the rankings and a chance to play in the national playoffs.
You can keep up-to-date with all of today's action by logging onto www.acusports.com where you will find Tarleton's next opponent following Saturday's games.
