HOUSTON – The Tarleton State offense came to life in the top of the sixth inning and never looked back as the Texans defeated No. 38 St. Mary's 8-4 in the second game of the Winter Invitational at Minute Maid Park.
 
Tarleton starter Kyle Gottardy was in a heated pitcher's duel over the first three innings as both starters were tossing one-hitters through the opening third of the game.
 
St. Mary's got to Gottardy in the fourth, however, as the Rattlers got two in the fourth and one in the fifth to chase the Tarleton season after 4.1 in his season debut. Gottardy would finish his outing with five strikeouts on the afternoon.
 
Eythan Lenz came on in relief and got a pair of outs - with an outfield assist from Kevin Meredith to gun down another run at the plate and an inning-ending grounder to short – to stop the bleeding and keep the game at 3-0 after five.
 
In the top of the sixth, Tarleton's offense rose up when Peter McMahon sparked the rally with a triple to center field.
 
After Evan Robinson reached on a hit by pitch and stole second base, Alec Humphreys came back from a 0-2 count to work it full and deliver the payoff pitch into right field for the first two runs of the game for the Texans.
 
The scoring did not stop there as the Texans added two more in the seventh on a 2-RBI single from McMahon. Then the Texans kept pouring it on with three more in the eighth with a pair of RBI singles and a Rattler error to extend the lead to 7-3.
 
St. Mary's tacked on their final run in the bottom of the eighth before and RBI single from Landon Merka in the ninth brought the game to its final score.
 
Cole Foster made his Tarleton debut with one out in the eighth and earned his first career save with 1.2 innings of work. In the ninth, he gave up a leadoff single before tossing a double-play groundball and finishing off the game with his first strikeout as a Texan.
 
After having just one hit over the first five innings, Tarleton State ended the game with 12 base knocks including two each from Merka, Matt Olive, Jonathan Schmitz and McMahon. Robinson, Andrew Jacobi, Kevin Meredith and Humphreys had the rest of the hits for Tarleton.
 
Lenz earned the win by throwing 2.2 innings allowing just one hit – which led to an out on the outfield assist by Meredith – and racking up four strikeouts. Seth Hallmark also made his season debut on the bump, facing three batters and striking out one.
 
Tarleton State will play its third game of the Winter Invitational tomorrow at 10 a.m. against Henderson State.