Crusaders Split with St. Thomas in First Pair of Contests
HOUSTON - The University of Dallas Crusaders lost the first game of their three game series against Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) the University of St. Thomas. UD lost 10-9 on a walk-off balk in game one, and the Crusaders played eight innings of game two before the game was suspended for Darkness. When play resumed Sunday, neither team had an eventful ninth, as Jon Talley (Pineville, La.) slammed the door with a pair of strikeouts that bookend a 1-2-3 inning and held a 16-11 victory.
(Game 1 Information)
Team Scores: Dallas (10) Hardin-Simmons (9)
Team Records: Dallas (8-17, 4-11) Hardin-Simmons (15-13, 5-10)
Pitcher Records: W) Nick Petro (2-2), L) Tyler Montemayor (1-4)
Dallas got on the board first with a run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly by Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas). UD would extend the lead to 3-0 in the second when Ross Lowe (Lewisville, Texas) hit a two-run home run to left field.
St. Thomas would get two back in the bottom of the second when John Sebok hit an RBI single and Noah Martinez hit an RBI double. The Celts would tie the score in the third when Sebok hit another RBI single.
Dallas retook the lead in the fourth when Anthony Maldonado (Del Rio, Texas) hit an RBI groundout to score Lowe to give UD a 4-3. St. Thomas countered with two in the bottom of the inning. The first run came on a sacrifice fly by Jason Brown and the second run came on an error by first baseman Andrew Womack (Vienna, Va.).
Dallas tied the game in the sixth as Tyler Darnell (Southlake, Texas) drove in a run on a sacrifice bunt. The Celts jumped ahead 8-5 in the bottom of the inning as Martinez scored on an error, Leo Galvan hit a sacrifice fly to left and Hunter Pachal hit an RBI groundout to third.
UD rallied for four runs in the seventh as Michael Anderson (Denver, Colo.) doubled in two runs, Grady Birmingham (Newport Beach, Calif.) singled in a run and Maldonado bunted in a run on a sacrifice.
St. Thomas won the game in walk-off fashion in the bottom of the ninth as Galvan scored a run on an error by Lowe and Jacob Carriere scored on a balk by pitcher Tyler Montemayor (Boerne, Texas). Both runs came in with the bases loaded.
Despite the end result of the game, Montemayor pitched well in his relief performance going three plus innings, allowing one hit, two runs, only one earned with three walks and a strikeout. Montemayor had only allowed one base run prior to the ninth, who was immediately erased on a double play.
UD allowed 10 runs in the game, but only five of them were earned.
Lowe has now hit home runs in back-to-back at-bats against conference opponents. He hit an inside the park home run in a ninth inning, pinch hit at-bat against No. 2Trinity last Sunday.
(Game 2 Information)
Team Scores: Dallas (16) St. Thomas (11)
Team Records: Dallas (9-18, 5-11) St. Thomas (15-14, 4-13)
Pitcher Records: W) Graeme Williams (2-2), L) Landon Murray (1-4)
In game two, Dallas got on the board first as Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas) singled into center field to drive in Joe Vondrachek (North St. Paul, Minn.) to give UD a 1-0 lead.
In the second inning, Dallas got three more runs as the inning started with a single by Michael Anderson (Denver, Colo.) and a walk by Ross Lowe (Lewisville, Texas). Three batters later Tyler Darnell (Southlake, Texas) hit a two RBI double to right center to score Anderson and Lowe. Vondrachek then hit a sacrifice fly to center field to score Anthony Maldonado (Del Rio, Texas) and give the Crusaders a 4-0 lead.
In the third, UD got two more runs as Patton scored on an error by third baseman Jason Brown, and Lowe hit a sacrifice fly to right to score Zach Taylor (Humble, Texas) to make it 6-0.
St. Thomas answered back in the bottom of the inning as Brown singled to center to score Noah Martinez, and then Kyle Bearden stole home to bring the score to 6-2.
The Crusaders put up three more in the fourth as Patton, Taylor and Anderson hit consecutive RBI singles to put Dallas up 9-2.
In the bottom of the inning, the Celts put the first four batters on base, which included RBI singles by Edward Gutierrez and Adam Scharf to make it 9-4.
In the fifth, St. Thomas got another run as John Sebok drove in Caleb Edmonds on an RBI groundout to shortstop for a score of 9-5.
Dallas put another rally together in the sixth inning, an inning that included five walks. With the bases loaded, Nick Hovde (Waco, Texas) and Maldonado were walked back-to-back to drive in two runs, and then Darnell hit a two RBI single to left to extend the lead to 13-5.
St. Thomas put five on the board in the bottom of the inning, putting the first five batters on base. With the bases loaded and no outs Brown singled in a run on a hit to right followed by a two RBI single from Edmonds on a hit to left. Leo Galvan drove in a run on a ground out to short, and Sebok singled in the last run to cut the score to 13-10.
The teams took a break from scoring the seventh, and Dallas put up three more in the eighth. Dallas scored two runs on an error by second baseman, Martinez, as Lowe and Maldonado scored. UD's third run came on an RBI foul out to third by Vondrachek to make the score 16-10.
St. Thomas got one back in the bottom of the inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, relief catcher Parker Edwards walked in a run to make the game 16-11.
After a very long break between innings, the ninth inning ended uneventfully as both teams went down in order.
Dallas concluded the series finale on Sunday after the suspended game ended.
