STEPHENVILLE – In their return to Stephenville, the Tarleton State Texans finished on the wrong side of a pitcher's duel Friday afternoon in a 2-0 loss to Texas A&M-Kingsville in the series opener at Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex.
 
"I still believe this is a good ball club," said head coach Bryan Conger. "We just need someone to come up with a timely hit. We certainly had plenty of opportunities to score and we just didn't get it done. In baseball, just like in life, the only thing to do in times like this is continue to work, move forward and, eventually, things will work out for you. That was our message to the kids after the game and eventually we're going to get it straightened out."
 
Matt Herrick took the bump for the Texans and was immediately locked in a pitcher's duel with Texas A&M-Kingsville starter Ryan Benitez.
 
The Tarleton right-hander came out dealing with two quick outs before back-to-back walks set up a first-inning jam, but Herrick came back to serve up a groundball to second base to stop the bleeding in the opening frame. From there, the pitchers locked in over the next inning and a half.
 
Herrick ran into a speed bump in the third inning when back-to-back lead off singles and a Tarleton error allowed a run to come across and set up a runner at third with one out. The Javelinas brought that run across with a sacrifice fly for a pair of unearned scores and a 2-0 lead after the top of the third.
 
The Texan right-hander ran into trouble again in his final inning of work when Kingsville led off the inning with two on and no outs, but Herrick got a bunt out and a fielder's choice to second base with the infield in that cut down a run at the plate before a walk and a fly out to left field left the Javelinas with the bases full of runners and no more runs on the board after six and a half.
 
Tarleton had at least one base runner stranded in from the third through the eighth, which saw the Texans lead off the bottom of the eighth inning with runners on first and second and no one out. A pair of strikeouts ended the threat, however, as Tarleton was kept off the board once again. Tarleton went down in order in the ninth to bring the game to its final score.
 
Herrick took the tough-luck loss despite not allowing an earned run as the sophomore went seven innings, over which he allowed two unearned runs, six hits and three walks while striking out five. Troyal Yosko relieved him in the eighth with a flawless, two-strikeout inning of work and John Kresta finished off the day by working a scoreless ninth.
 
Alec Humphreys went 2-3 at the dish while Kevin Meredith, Dalton Weeks and Evan Robinson accounted for the rest of Tarleton's five hits on the day. Robinson also had two defensive assists to bring his career total to 500, which has him three away from passing AJ Hall as the school's all-time leader in the category.
 
Tarleton State will return to action tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader against the Javelinas beginning at 1 p.m.