ABILENE - The Tarleton Texan baseball team won its second game of the 2009 Lone Star Conference Baseball Championships with a 7-3 win over Southeastern Oklahoma at Crutcher Scott Field on Sunday.
The No. 6 seeded Texans (27-28-1) came back from a 2-0 deficit to defeat the No. 4 seeded Savage Strom (27-27) and eliminate SOSU from the tournament in the process.
"Pitching and defense has gotten the job done for us so far," Tarleton head coach Bryan Conger said. "We are doing a good job throwing strikes and playing quality defense. In the end, that makes all the difference in the world."
Austin Neal (2-5) picked up just his second win on the season in what was the biggest stage he has pitched in his young career.
“I felt good out there today,” the freshman right-hander said. “I kept the ball down for the most part and spotted my pitches well where my catcher wanted.”
Neal gave up a two-run home run to Torey Oller in the bottom of the second inning but settled down enough to retire the next ten batters.
Chris Casazza led off the top of the fourth inning with a surprise bunt-single and later came around to score Tarleton's first run of the game on a Cy Williams single to left field.
With runners at second and third in the Tarleton fifth, Keith Peacock singled to center field and Chad Cloud scored on the play to to tie the game 2-2. A few batters later, Thomas de Angelis hit a sharp ground ball past the SOSU third baseman and John Ropple scored to give the Texans a 3-2 lead.
SOSU's Robbie Morris hit a home run to right field in the bottom of the fifth inning that ended the 10 straight retired by Neal and the Savage Storm tied the game 3-3.
Tarleton answered in the top of the sixth with a three-run inning to retake the lead, 6-3. Back-to-back singles from Bucky Squyres and Aaron Dalton put runners at first and second with no outs and Andrew Wolfe followed with a slash-single through the left side to score Squyres on the play. Cloud came up to bat and after what was supposed to be a pitching change for the Savage Storm, the umpires called SOSU's starting pitcher, Nathan Johnson, back to the mound. Matt Hinds came in to relieve Johnson with a 1-2 count already to Cloud, but after a meeting between the umpires, Johnson was summoned back to the mound.
Apparently, SOSU head coach Matt Metheny had already made too many trips to the mound and Johnson had to finish the at bat. Cloud wasted no time in ending the at-bat as he stroked the next pitch he saw over the shortstop's head and Dalton scored on the play. Hinds reentered the game and managed to get the first two outs of the inning, but Wolfe came around to score on Peacock's ground out to the shortstop to make it a 6-3 game in favor of the Texans.
Neal gave up a leadoff single to Josh Rorex in the bottom of the seventh inning and Scott Crook came into the game to relieve the freshman. Crook managed to induce a double-play ball but walked the next three batters he faced to load the bases. Crook then ended the threat as he got Scott Hancock to line out to Dalton and end the inning without any damage made.
P.J. Burns (S, 1) came into the game and retired the side in the bottom of the eighth inning, striking out all three batters he faced. The Texans added a run in the top of the ninth on Squyres' RBI-triple to center field to make it a 7-3 game.
Burns allowed two SOSU runners to reach base in the bottom of the ninth but ended up getting out of the inning and earning his first save in his first relief outing of the season.
Tarleton continued its aggressive style of play throughout the entire game, collecting nine stolen bases on the day ? one shy of tying the school record (10, 1988). Cloud, Ropple and Williams each had two stolen bases apiece.
Cloud and Squyres led the Texans at the plate as both hitters collected three hits each. Peacock had two hits and two runs batted in on the day as well.
Johnson (4-7) was hit with the loss after allowing six runs (four earned) on 11 hits through five full innings of work.
Neal finished the game allowing the three runs on six hits while striking out seven SOSU batters.
It was Tarleton's first time to win two post-season games since 2002 and the victory keeps the Texans in the winner's bracket. Tarleton will next face the winner of tonight's Abilene Christian-Angelo State game. Tarleton will play tonight's winner on Monday at 11 a.m.
Fans in Stephenville can catch all the action live by listening to KSTV (93.1 FM). Fans out of the Stephenville area can logon to the KSTV website and catch the action via live streaming audio.
Live stats will be available by logging onto www.acusports.com.
