STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton Baseball dropped the rubber game 2-1 to West Texas A&M in 10 innings with the Buffalos hitting a solo home run in the ninth and tenth inning.
 
Senior Colton Burleson started on the mound for Tarleton on senior day and provided two scoreless innings, giving up one hit while striking out three.
 
Dalton Weeks gave Tarleton its first hit of the game with a leadoff single in the third but was stranded at second.
 
The Texans broke through with the game's first run in the fifth when Landon Merka led off with a single to right field. Weeks' sacrifice bunt advanced Merka to second and later scored on Elijah Christenson's RBI single to left field for a 1-0 Tarleton lead.
 
Trevor Renfro relieved Burleson and matched the senior's pitching line with two innings, one hit and no runs with three strikeouts.
 
Troyal Yosko came on to pitch in the fifth and tossed 3 2/3 scoreless innings for Tarleton. Yosko gave up two hits and struck out a pair of Buffalos to maintain the slim 1-0 Tarleton lead.
 
In the ninth, West Texas A&M's Trace Hansen led off with a solo home run to left-center field off Hunter Houston to tie the game at 1 and send the game to extra innings.
 
Ryan March came up with one out in the tenth for West Texas A&M and hit a solo home run to right-center field to give the Buffalos its first lead of the game at 2-1.
 
Weeks lined a single to left field with one out in the tenth inning. With two outs, Peter McMahon singled to the shortstop to put runners and first and second for Jonathan Schmitz.
 
Weeks advanced to third on a wild pitch but couldn't be brought home as West Texas A&M's Paul Lujan, the Lone Star Conference leader in saves, struck out his fourth batter in two innings to give the Buffalos the win.
 
Weeks and Alec Humphreys had a pair of hits for Tarleton and McMahon went a game-best 3-for-4 at the plate.
 
Houston fell to 0-2 on the season, but struck out four in 2 1/3 innings in relief.
 
Before the game, Tarleton Baseball honored seven seniors: Evan Robinson, Eythan Lenz, Colton Burleson, Andrew Jacobi, Kyle Gottardy, Kevin Meredith and Quade Adams.
 
The Texans travel to Texas A&M-Kingsville on May 1 for the final series of the regular season. Tarleton, who is 20-20 overall and 13-16 in the Lone Star Conference, holds a three-game lead over Eastern New Mexico with three games to play for the final playoff spot in the Lone Star Conference tournament.