HOUSTON – Tarleton had plenty of chances, including three straight innings with the bases loaded, but couldn't capitalize in a 6-1 loss to Colorado Mines on the second day of the Houston Winter Invitational at Minute Maid Park Saturday.
"First of all, you have to give credit to Colorado School of Mines. They came out and took it to us. We weren't prepared and we weren't ready and they took advantage of it. So, a big tip of the cap to them," said head coach
Bryan Conger. "Hopefully this group (Tarleton) will learn and realize that if you want to be tough and accomplish something that it is an every-day, all-the-time endeavor. That's what good teams do – they bring it consistently day in and day out."
Alex DeBell got the start for Tarleton in his first appearance since February 24 of last year when he suffered a season-ending injury and threw two scoreless innings to start things off before running into some trouble in the third. Mines brought in the first run and loaded the bases with one out, forcing Tarleton to dip into the bullpen.
True freshman
Eric Maler made his collegiate debut in relief and immediately got the second out of the inning with a sacrifice fly ball to make it 2-0. Mines would come up with one more big hit in the inning as a 2-run single extended things out to 4-0. They added two more runs in the fourth on an RBI single and an RBI double to push the lead out to 6-0.
Kurt Johnson came on in relief of Maler and stopped the bleeding with a strikeout and a fly ball to right field to close out the fourth. Johnson went on to post goose eggs over the final five innings to stabilize the Texan bullpen. He finished with 5.2 innings of work, allowing three hits and striking out three.
Meanwhile, Tarleton's offense found ways on base but couldn't push many runs across. The Texans stranded 15 runners for the game, including three consecutive innings of leaving the bases full. Tarleton scored its only run of the game with a one-out home run by
Jake Hasbrouck in the bottom of the ninth.
Jared McCarver boasted a three-hit day for the Texans while
Dylan Lemons,
Ruben Rodriguez, and Hasbrouck had one each to round out Tarleton's six-hit attack. The Texans worked seven walks and were hit by five pitches for 12 total free bases.
The Texans will close out the 2018 Winter Invitational with the final game tomorrow night as Tarleton squares off with St. Mary's at 6 p.m. at Minute Maid Park.
"We need to show up ready to go and be willing to compete on every single pitch," said Conger. "We need to take the lessons of today – and there were a lot of them – and move forward and apply the things they know they need to do."
