St. Edward’s baseball was run-ruled 14-3 by the Lubbock Christian University Chaparrals in seven innings. The Hilltoppers started strong with a smooth diving stop and throw by shortstop Marco Gonzalez to rob Chaparral right fielder Shea Bowen of a base hit up the middle on the first pitch of the game.
Trevor Sebek and Carlo Figueroa set the table in the bottom of the second inning with back-to-back base hits to put runners on first and second with nobody out. The freshman, Gonzalez, came through on the first pitch he saw in his first career at bat at Lucian Hamilton Field with an RBI-single to left-center field. Then Travis Chestnut struck out and Connor Cox walked to load the bases for the Hilltoppers’ former All-American first baseman, Lance Little. He worked an RBI-walk to put the Hilltoppers in front, 2-0.
In the top of the third, Hilltoppers’ starter, Kobe Jaramillo, walked Frayner Chavez and Bowen to start the inning. Lone Star Conference Hitter of the Week, Brevin McCool, rolled a grounder to Gonzalez deep in the hole at shortstop, Gonzalez slid to his right, fielded it and fired to Figueroa at second, and Figueroa threw to first for a 6-4-3 double play. Chavez then scored on a passed ball to make it a 2-1 game.
In the home half of the third, Dylan Tate drew a leadoff walk, and then advanced to third on a single to left field by Diego Solis. The following batter, Sebek laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt RBI to the first base side to score Tate.
Jaramillo struck out the first two batters of the top of the fifth inning, but the Chaps created some two-out magic. Chavez singled to left and stole second, then Bowen walked. McCool hit a chopper up the middle, Gonzalez gloved it running to his left, he attempted to “shuffle-flip” it to Figueroa at second base, but his errant feed sailed away allowing a run to score and the inning to continue. Jacob Gutierrez tied the game 3-3 with a base hit to score Bowen.
Jaramillo exited the game with tied 3-3 after five innings, giving up two earned runs, seven strikeouts and four hits.
In the top of the sixth, the game got away from the Hilltoppers. Brock Tijerina sprayed a deep fly ball to center field, where Chestnut had the ball in his glove before slamming into the fence and jarring the ball loose, ending up with a triple for the Chaps. Johnny Gomez III reached on another error by Gonzalez, then Ryan Blackwell was plunked. Ensuing hitter Kade York sent a towering fly ball just out of the reach of Marco Barrera over the fence in left field for a grand slam.
The inning, and ultimately the game, unraveled for the Hilltoppers. They sent three pitchers to the mound in the top of the sixth, allowing eight runs on four hits, three walks, two hit-by-pitches and two errors.
Nicklaus Baumbach crushed a no-doubt three-run bomb to left for the Chaps to make it a 14-3 game.
“We had opportunities offensively to score runs and create separation,” St. Edward’s head coach Ryan Femath said. “But anytime you give up an eight-spot (eight run inning), it is really tough to come back from that.”
St. Edward’s came back from the first game loss, winning the following three games in the series. The Hilltoppers now have a 27-11 overall record and will go on the road this Friday to play a series against Angelo State University.
