CANYON – Tarleton State fell to West Texas A&M 4-3 in the series finale at Wilder Park in Canyon Sunday afternoon.
The loss came on a two-out double in the bottom of the eighth before a scoreless ninth inning capped off the series sweep of Tarleton in Canyon. It was also the first time Tarleton has suffered a sweep this season.
Tarleton State got the scoring started right away when
Alec Humphreys opened the game up with a leadoff single to left center. After
Kevin Meredith moved him to third with a sacrifice bunt,
Jonathan Schmitz cashed in with an RBI double to the left center gap for a quick 1-0 Texan lead.
Over the next four innings, Tarleton's
Kyle Gottardy was locked in a pitcher's duel and doing his share of dueling until the Texans ran into some trouble in the bottom of the sixth. The Buffs scored three runs on three hits while three different Texans recorded outs in the inning with
Eythan Lenz locking down out No. 3 to strand the bases loaded and keep the deficit at 3-1.
The Texans answered right back when they brought one run across in the top of the seventh and, after a shutdown inning from Lenz and
John Kresta, tied things up with a single from
Dalton Weeks that turned into a run with a three-base error by the centerfielder to bring the score to 3-3.
West Texas A&M got the winning run with two outs in the eighth before the Texans were set down in order in the top of the ninth on a strikeout and a pair of groundouts.
Kresta took the loss with 1.1 innings of work and one run on three hits while striking out two. Gottardy threw the first 5.1 innings allowing three runs on seven hits while striking out five.
Hunter Houston got one out of relief while Lenz pitched a full inning.
The Tarleton offense posted seven hits on the day with Schmitz leading the way at 2-3 with an RBI. Humphreys,
Brandon Villeneuve, Weeks,
Andrew Jacobi and
Evan Robinson had the rest of the hits for the Texans.
Tarleton State will return home next weekend to host Texas A&M-Kingsville, beginning Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.
