Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 Game One Box Score | Game Two Box Score

THE RUNDOWN
AUSTIN, Texas – The St. Edward's baseball team split day one of the four-game set vs. St. Mary's Friday evening at Lucian-Hamilton Field. JUAN CORTINA threw his first career complete game in the 4-2 victory in game one, but the team came up short in game two 8-4.
 
DEREK RAMOS went 5-for-7 at the dish and recorded two swipes and an RBI in the two games combined. WILLIAM HAIRSTON logged four hits with three of them being extra-base hits, including his fourth homerun of the season, while BLAKE ALEXANDER also had four hits, highlighted by his tenth career dinger and led the team with two RBIs.
 
The Hilltoppers (9-6) put one run on the board in the first inning of game one, but the Rattlers (11-5) responded in the third thanks to a two RBI double by Donnie Perez to put the visitors on top 2-1. An infield RBI single in the fourth by Ramos knotted the game at two, and Alexander came through with a two-run shot over the left centerfield wall to give SEU a 4-2 advantage through six innings. Cortina (2-2) would finish up and record the final three outs to claim his second win of the season after fanning nine batters, tying a personal single-game career-high.
 
Both clubs exchanged solo home runs to right field, but St. Mary's cashed in on a three-run, three-hit fourth inning to gain a 4-1 lead. The Rattlers never looked back as they salvaged the day with a 1-1 split, taking game two, 8-4. COOPER BAILEY (0-1) was charged with the loss after pitching 3.1 innings and registered three strikeouts. JOEL MILLER tossed 3.0 innings with two punch outs and AUSTIN WEAVER threw 1.2 innings and logged his 30^th career strikeout. DANIEL SABATINO and JOSIAH CHUPIK also saw time on the mound.      
 
 
GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS
• BLAKE ALEXANDER's homerun was the 10^th of his career, 25^th career extra base hit, and the two RBI logged the 50^th of his career.
• JUAN CORTINA's fourth of nine strikeouts was the 50^th of his career.
• WILLIAM HAIRSTON went 2-for-4 at the plate and scored two runs; recorded his fifth multiple hit game of season.
• DEREK RAMOS batted a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate and logged one RBI and one stolen base.
• Ramos recorded his first multiple hit game of the season.
 
GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS
• Hairston's homer in the third inning was his 30^th career extra base hit.
• Hairston went 2-for-3 at the plate, scored two runs, and had one RBI.
• Ramos's second hit of the game was the 10^th of his career.
• In his 20^th career appearance, AUSTIN WEAVER's lone strikeout was the 30^th of his career.
• Alexander went 3-for-5 at the dish.
 

STAT OF THE GAME I
5 – No. 5 BLAKE ALEXANDER's homerun in the fifth inning proved to be the game winner.
 
STAT OF THE GAME II
11 – St. Edward's outhit St. Mary's 11-9 in the losing effort.
 
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Rob Penders initial thoughts on today's doubleheader…
"Yeah, I mean when you get two good teams together, it's tough to sweep a doubleheader and that's what's so hard about them. That's kind of what you saw today. We came out in the first game and two good pitchers [were] going at it. We were fortunate to get the win there and then the second game, you know, they made some good adjustments at the plate and got the job done when they needed to. We just didn't get on top of the ball and create enough offense."
 
Penders on JUAN CORTINA's performance in game one…
"He was outstanding. I mean, as you saw, that's what we expect him to do being our ace and he performed like an ace today so that was good to see."   

WHAT'S NEXT
Hilltoppers and Rattlers will conclude the first of two Battle of the Saints meetings tomorrow with another doubleheader slated to begin at noon. Live stats and video will be available at GoHilltoppers.com.

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