- Box Score
STEPHENVILLE – The Tarleton baseball team powered through wet grounds and strong winds to take a late 5-2 win over Howard Payne Tuesday evening at the Cecil Ballow Baseball Complex.
With dreary weather and heavy crosswinds blanketing the field, it was obvious that it was not going to be a track race. Instead it had the feel of a game that would come down to a couple of crucial plays.
Howard Payne was able to get two men on in both the first and second innings, but starter Kenneth Stockton and reliever Chuck Brown were able to get out of the situations unscathed.
Third baseman Chris Casazza put Tarleton ahead in the bottom of the second with a moon shot to left that cleared the fence for a 1-0 Texan lead.
They threatened further by putting the next two batters on via hit by pitch and a Yellow Jacket error. Catcher Jared Musgrove followed with a nice sacrifice bunt, putting both runners in scoring position. Rightfielder Andrew Wolfe produced another sacrifice bunt that plated the runner on third and pushed Tarleton ahead 2-0 after two at-bats.
Howard Payne got a run back in the top of the fifth on an RBI single, pulling back within a run.
The Yellow Jackets found a way to tie the game up in the top of the seventh on a fielder's choice that allowed the visitors to even the score at 2-2.
The Texans got back out ahead as time started to become a factor in the bottom of the eighth with a pair of runs. Tarleton was able to take advantage with some small ball and opportune steals to take the late 4-2 lead. The two runs were capped off with a perfectly executed double-steal of second and home by Casazza and centerfielder Tim Rainey.
Wolfe added an insurance run a couple of batters later to make it a 5-2 contest as the Texans entered the ninth just three outs away from the victory.
Tarleton turned to their usual closer Turner to prevent any comeback from the Yellow Jackets, and he did just that with a perfect ninth.
Turner (4-2) was awarded the win after getting the final out in the eighth inning as well.
Howard Payne reliever and normal shortstop Corey Howie (0-1) suffered the loss after giving up the three runs in the eighth.
The Texans were out-hit in the game 7-5, but it didn't' matter as they produced runs in a variety of different ways.
Wolfe led the way with two RBI's, while Casazza and Rainey provided the others.
Tarleton also got strong pitching performances out of Stockton, Brown, Matt Shannon and Tanner Ross, who all tossed shutout innings.
Head coach Bryan Conger talked about his team's performance after the game.
"We were fortunate tonight," said Conger. "Howard Payne out-coached us, out-played us, and had more intensity than we did. We will move forward and work on those things in our next practice."
The Texans (21-7) will stay in Stephenville to host UT-Permian Basin for a three-game series starting Friday, April 2.
For more information regarding the 2011 Texan baseball season, check out TarletonSports.com.
