CANYON – Tarleton took game one of Saturday's twin bill against No. 18 West Texas A&M behind a brilliant pitching performance from junior right-hander Nathan Hickey.
   
Nathan Hickey dealt his first career complete game shutout to lead Tarleton to a 3-0 victory at No. 18 West Texas A&M. It was Hickey's third shutout of the season, but the first that he took the distance.
 
The junior from Granbury had to dance out of danger in the second by stranding two runners. He ran into trouble once again in the fourth when WT loaded the bases with one away, but Hickey served up a groundball, 4-6-3 double play to escape the threat.
 
After that, Hickey allowed just two more base runners over the final three innings en route to his seventh win of the season. Hickey threw all seven innings, allowing five hits and three walks with one strikeout.
 
Meanwhile, the Tarleton offense came to Hickey's aid with two runs in the second inning on an RBI single from Ben Mauseth and an RBI squeeze bunt from Hunter Seales. The Texans tacked on one more in the next inning with an RBI single into right from Dylan Lemons for the 3-0 lead. Tarleton managed nine hits in the game, led by two hits each from Francisco Rodriguez, Jake Hasbrouck, and Mauseth. Lemons, Luis Rivas, and Jose Reyes each had one hit to round out the offense.
   
Tarleton put together a seventh-inning rally that ended up one run short as the Texans fell 4-3 in the nightcap of Saturday's doubleheader.
 
The Texans got on the board first with a third-inning RBI double by Austin Call to bring home Francisco Rodriguez for a 1-0 lead. That lead would hold until the bottom of the fourth when West Texas A&M tied it at 1-1 and then added one in the fifth and two in the sixth to send the game into the final inning with the Buffs on top 4-1.
 
Stacy Heinatz started the seventh with a leadoff single. He was pulled for pinch-runner Colt Nelson, who came around to score two batters later when Mauseth singled to right and moved to third on a two-base error in the outfield. After Jose Reyes drew a walk, Rodriguez drove home Mauseth with an RBI fielder's choice but the Texans would get no more.
 
Tarleton got one hit each from six different players and RBIs from Rodriguez and Call. Evan Pontley took the loss with five innings of work, allowing four runs – only one earned – on four hits and three walks with four strikeouts. Will Blanchard pitched one inning of scoreless relief with a strikeout.
 
Tarleton and West Texas A&M will close out the series with a 1 p.m. showdown at Wilder Park Sunday afternoon.