CANYON, Texas – Twin brothers Romeo and JUAN CORTINA came to play in a big way for St. Edward's Baseball on Sunday, as Romeo hit a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the ninth to take down Colorado Mines, 4-3, giving Juan his first win as a Hilltopper.
 
JUAN CORTINA came out of the bullpen and pitched 3.1 innings of one-hit, shutout baseball to get the win. He struck five batters in relief of a 5.2-inning, five-strikeout start from CAMERON STANTON.
 
ROMEO CORTINA went 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI, giving him a hit in five of the last six games. HUNTER COURSON, who came from Sam Houston State with the Cortinas, tallied three hits as well, and collected a pair of RBI. Capping off the three-hit performers for the Hilltoppers was GABLE WHITACRE who also scored a run and drove one in.
 
St. Edward's snaps a two-game slide and improves to 3-3 on the year. Colorado Mines drops to 1-2.
 
"Our offense generated more hits today, which is step one to more run production," said head coach Rob Penders. "Now we need to get more efficient at that, and we will. It was good to see us take many good at-bats today from inning to inning. We are happy to open up at home on Friday, and get into a familiar environment, hitting-wise. Romeo has been coming up with big at-bats the first two weekends, and it was big that he got the RBI. However, we had a lot of those situations today where we didn't cash it in. Once one happens, guys expect it to occur again. Hopefully we can keep this momentum, and move forward."
 
For the third time this weekend, the Hilltoppers fell behind within the first two innings. A pair of runs for the Orediggers in the top of the first put St. Edward's on its heels, but not for long.
 
ROMEO CORTINA's first hit of the game came in the bottom of the second with two outs. WESLEY HARRIS followed up with another single, and moved Cortina to third. Courson capped off the Hilltoppers' third consecutive hit of the inning, scoring Cortina, and making it 2-1.
 
Mines added another run in the third to make it 3-1. However, that would be the last of the scoring for the opponents from Colorado.
 
Coach Penders' team scored a second run in the bottom of the fourth on a Courson single to center field. That hit brought JOSEPH OLSON into score, and cut the Orediggers' lead to one.
 
Then, in the bottom of the seventh, RYAN MCPHAIL led the inning off with a single past the shortstop. He then stole second before DYLAN WATTS laid down a sacrifice bunt to put a runner on third with one out. Whitacre singled up the middle, and the game was tied.
 
A scoreless eighth inning gave way to tensions running high in the ninth. JUAN CORTINA shut down the Orediggers with two strikeouts - looking. In the bottom of the inning the Hilltoppers proceeded confidently. Whitacre singled, again, past the shortstop, and Olson forced an error at third. Mines decided to change pitchers, but it would not make a difference. Cortina stepped in and put the ball through the left side.
 
As a team, the Hilltoppers combined for 15 hits, but left 11 runners on base. The pitching staff only gave up one earned run, and struck out 10. St. Edward's hurlers now have a combined earned-run average of 2.57, and are holding opposing hitters to an average of .249.
 
Coach Penders and his team are set to open their home schedule for 2016 on Friday against Houston-Victoria in a doubleheader. The first pitch is set to be thrown at 12:30. Live stats and video will be available at GoHilltoppers.com.