St. Mary's jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first four innings and eventually rode it to an 8-4 win over The University of Texas of the Permian Basin baseball team. The Rattlers took two-of-three games from the Falcons, who currently sit in fourth place in the Heartland Conference standings.
The Rattlers pounded out 14 hits and had five different players pick up at least two hits in the win. UTPB had nine hits on the day with
Chandler Goode,
Andy Quiring and
Jeremy Miller picking up two hits each. While the top-four hitters in the lineup did their job, the bottom five combined to go 1-for-13 at the plate.
Derek Moczygemba tripled down the right field line in the top of the second to score Weston Baros, who led off the inning with a single up the middle. Greg Herbst would follow with a to right to plate Moczygemba, giving St. Mary's a 2-0 lead.
The Rattlers would tack on one more in the third after Tyler Migl hit a run-scoring double to left center to plate Jason Garcia who singled. They would make it 5-0 with two more runs in the fourth thanks to three hits before the Falcons finally answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame.
Goode led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to left before
Garrett Wolff moved him to third with a single down the right field line. Quiring would join the hit parade with a double down the left line to plate Goode for the Falcons' first run of the day. Miller would make it 5-2 after his groundout to first base was deep enough to score Wolff.
Austin Wooldridge continued the threat as he hit an RBI double to right center to bring Quiring in from second base. Kyle Bumpas would eventually come in relief for starter Carl O'Neal to stop the rally.
Bumpas would eventually get the win as he tossed 4.2 innings where he gave up one run off four hits while striking out one.
The momentum would not carry over as St. Mary's answered with three more runs in the sixth inning thanks to three hits and two UTPB errors. The Falcons would finish with four miscues defensively.
UTPB moved to 15-20 on the year and 10-11 in Heartland Conference action, while St. Mary's improved to 30-8 overall and 18-3 in league play. The Falcons will head to Austin next weekend to take on St. Edward's for a three-game series.
