STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton State baseball team won their second consecutive series Saturday afternoon with a doubleheader split against Texas A&M International.
 
The Texans dropped the first game, but rebounded in the second game to earn a 6-1 win over the Dustdevils and win the series 2-1. The series was originally planned to be a four-game set, but inclement weather in the forecast led to an early cancellation of Sunday's game.
  
For the first 6.2 innings, Tarleton State was on the wrong side of a no-hit bid but a pair of back-to-back doubles from Landon Merka and Kevin Meredith broke up the no-no and the shutout as the Texans fell 3-1.
 
Kyle Gottardy earned the start for Tarleton and battled through the first five innings, surrendering just two runs on eight hits and a walk with a pair of strikeouts. Cole Foster came on in relief and tossed the final two innings, over which he allowed one run on three hits and a walk.
 
Merka got the Texans in the hit column with an opposite-field double before coming around to score on a double to right center from Meredith for the lone Texan offense of the game. Outside of the two hits, Tarleton had four walks during the game.
  
The Tarleton pitching staff combined to keep International off the board for the final eight innings while the Texan offense poured on six runs to secure the win and the doubleheader split.
 
After the Dustdevils coaxed a bases loaded walk in the opening inning to score their only run of the game, Tarleton's offense quickly came to the aid of starter Blain Bagley with two in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly from Evan Robinson and a monster home run to deep left field by Landon Thompson to give the Texans a 2-1 advantage after one.
 
The teams tossed up dueling goose eggs over the next two innings before Tarleton tacked on two more runs in the bottom of the fourth on a pair of RBI doubles from Meredith and Collin Scribner.
 
Colton Burleson continued to keep the Dustdevils in check from the bump while the Texans opened the flood gates to plate Alec Humprheys and Evan Robinson for the game's final runs. Burleson pitched through the seventh while Trevor Renfro finished off the game with two scoreless frames.
 
Burleson earned the win in relief of Bagley, who tossed the first three innings and allowing one run on four hits and a walk with one strikeout. Burleson threw four innings of relief en route to the win, allowing six hits and striking out three. Renfro pitched back-to-back flawless innings to cap off the win.
 
Humphreys and Meredith each went 2-4 at the dish with Humphreys scoring twice and Meredith scoring once and driving in one. Thompson, Merka and Scribner had the rest of Tarleton's seven hits.
 
With Sunday's game canceled, Tarleton State will begin Lone Star Conference action next weekend with a trip to Portales for a four-game series, beginning Friday at 6 p.m.