KINGSVILLE – Tarleton dropped the first two games of its road series at No. 25 Texas A&M-Kingsville Friday afternoon.
  
In the series opener, the Texans found themselves on the wrong side of a pitcher's duel as Tarleton lost 2-1 to the No. 25 Javelinas at Nolan Ryan Field.
 
Kingsville struck first on its opening two batters of the game when a single and an RBI double put Tarleton in an 0-1 hole. After that, however, Trevor Renfro settled in and escaped any more damage with two strikeouts and a pop-up.
 
Tarleton had a good scoring chance in the third inning with back-to-back one out singles and a two-out walk, but couldn't capitalize. Neither team saw much offense over the next two innings as both pitchers posted a pair of no-hit frames before Tarleton tied the game in the top of the sixth.
 
Hunter Seales worked his way all around the bases by reaching on an error, advancing to second on a wild pitch, and stealing third base. The junior outfielder came in to score on an RBI triple by Landon Thompson, which was the first three-base hit in the career of the fifth-year Tarleton senior.
 
After Kingsville scored the go-ahead run in the ensuing half inning, Tarleton made some noise in the seventh but couldn't keep the game going as singles from Dalton Richardson and Stacy Heinatz went unanswered with one out in the seventh.
 
Tarleton had six hits in the game from six different players – Landon Merka, Seales, Thompson, Richardson, Heinatz, and Forrest Perron.
 
Meanwhile, Renfro took the tough-luck loss from the bump as the senior from Richardson delivered a complete game effort with six innings of work. He allowed two runs on four hits with three walks and eight strikeouts.
  
In the second game of the day, Tarleton suffered a sweep despite recording 11 base hits in an 11-0 shutout to the Javelinas.
 
Tarleton was shutout for the third time this season despite topping the double-digit hit mark for the eighth time this season with 11. All 11 hits came from the top seven spots in the lineup, including two-hit performances from Seales, Thompson, Trevor Inman, and Zach Fleet. Merka, Alec Humphreys, and Jake Hasbrouck had one hit each to round out the 11-hit performance.
 
Meanwhile, Kingsville scored 11 runs off 16 hits and one Tarleton error to send Tarleton to its second loss of the afternoon.
 
The teams will meet for a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon in the final day of the series beginning at 1 p.m.