STEPHENVILLE – Kevin Meredith was a 2014 American Baseball Coaches Association first-team selection for a gold glove – and Sunday afternoon, he showed everyone why.
 
With Tarleton State leading No. 8 Angelo State 3-1 with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, the Rams' Chandler Patterson ripped a pitch deep to left center for what would have been a game-tying double off Trevor Renfro, who was in his third inning of flawless relief to that point.
 
"Off the bat, we obviously made a mistake – but, even with that said, Trevor Renfro did a tremendous job of getting us to that point and that was literally the only mistake I thought he made while he was out there," said head coach Bryan Conger.
 
Then enter Meredith.
 
The senior outfielder from Manor tracked down the line drive with a full extension, full speed diving catch that sent him head-first into the outfield fence as he came up with the baseball in hand to deliver a 3-1 win for the Texans.
 
"Kevin Meredith is a tremendous warrior," said Conger. "If he can get to a ball, he's going to catch it. That was a matter of will power. An average defender let's that ball hit the ground, but not Merry. You know if he can get to it, he's going to catch it."
 
Meredith's catch secured the second win of the season for starting pitcher Colton Burleson, who tossed six innings of baseball for his longest outing of the season thus far. Burleson, who has been easing his way back from injury, threw six innings allowing just one run – which came in as an unearned run on a bases-loaded interference call in the top of the seventh – on five hits with no walks and two strikeouts.
 
"Burly did exactly what Burly does – he competes," said Conger. "That kid is an absolute warrior. No matter what he has, he's going to give you 100 percent of whatever it is. If it's 75 percent, he's going to give you 100 of 75. He's an awesome competitor."
 
Renfro relieved Burleson with two on and no outs in the seventh inning and allowed a lead-off single and the interference call, but nothing more. The junior from Richardson struck out a pair and got a weak pop up to second base to escape the jam. He finished the game with a line of two hits and one walk with six strikeouts over three innings en route to his first career save as a Texan.
 
Meanwhile, Tarleton did all its scoring in the sixth when Evan Robinson was hit to lead off the inning before the Ram centerfielder slipped in the outfield and allowed a fly ball to fall for a Meredith base hit to set up the Texans with runners on second and third with no one out. Alec Humphreys cashed in with a one-out, two-run double down the left field line to put Tarleton up 2-0 in the bottom of the sixth.
 
The Texans later added one more run on an RBI groundout by Andrew Jacobi to extend the advantage to 3-0 after six.
 
At the plate, Jonathan Schmitz was 3-3 while Meredith, Humphreys, Landon Merka, Matt Olive and Robinson had the rest of Tarleton's eight hits on the afternoon. Merka and Robinson were also hit by pitches while Meredith, Dalton Weeks and Schmitz each worked a walk on the afternoon.
 
The Texans will look to earn a series split with the Rams tomorrow afternoon for a 1 p.m. first pitch, weather permitting.