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

THE RUNDOWN
AUSTIN, Texas – After opening league play with an 5-8 record through roughly three weeks into the schedule, the St. Edward's baseball team closed the season by winning 13 of its final 15 games, including Sunday's doubleheader sweep at Lucian-Hamilton Field vs. Texas A&M International to claim a share of the 2018 Heartland Conference regular season title and will enter the conference tournament as the No. 1 seed. The Hilltoppers (30-19, 18-10) shutout the Dustdevils (13-36, 5-23), 12-0 in game one and pulled off the 3-2 win in game two to sweep the day.
 
SEU will make its ninth straight Heartland Conference Tournament appearance and 12^th all-time. JUAN CORTINA and LUKE GIBBONS combined for the Hilltoppers eighth shutout this season in game one Sunday, and the 3-1 series win gives head coach Rob Penders his seventh consecutive season with 30 or more wins.
 
Cortina (4-6) came out pounding the strike zone and finished the game with nine strikeouts and relinquished only two hits and two walks over six frames. Gibbons finished off the last inning by retiring the first three batters he faced to complete the combined shutout. The Hilltoppers dominated the Dustdevils wire-to-wire, scoring two runs in the first three innings before blowing the game open with six runs in the fourth for a 12-0 lead. BLAKE HOLUB had a 3-for-4 outing at the plate, scored two runs and drove in two RBIs, and DEREK RAMOS also registered two runs and two ribbies with his 2-for-4 performance.
 
The Hilltoppers kept things rolling in game two with a pair of RBIs from BLAKE ALEXANDER and Holub in the first inning, but the Dustdevils ended the whispers of another shutout as Abel Aguilar drove in the team's first run on the day with an RBI single in the third. With the score still at 2-1, DYLAN MACKIN knocked in his first triple of his career in the seventh stanza, and was rewarded by an RBI fielder's choice from ZACH SCHINDLER to increase the lead, 3-1. Although Ricky Gonzalez drove in his third RBI of the series in the eighth, SEU would not allow another run cross as closer JAKE DAVIS finished with a game-high four strikeouts in two innings, including three punch-outs in the ninth for his sixth save in 2018. TRENT ROSENAUER (3-0) picked up the win with one K in five innings, while JOSIAH CHUPIK held the Dustdevils off with two strikeouts in two innings and no runs.
 
The Hilltoppers have won the Heartland Conference regular season title for the sixth time since 2007 and 2018 marks the second time they have been Co-Heartland Conference Champions (2015), both with St. Mary's. With SEU and STMU winning their final Heartland series 3-1, both finish with an 18-10 league record to share the regular season crown, however, because the Hilltoppers defeated the Rattlers 3-1 in the Heartland series April 13-14, they have earned the top seed in the conference tournament held May 10-12 in Cleburne, Texas.

 

HIGHLIGHTS GAME ONE
• Hilltoppers records eighth shutout of season, which is tied for 5^th in the single-season record book (2016, 1980).
• SEU tied season-high of five stolen bases in a game (three times).
• JUAN CORTINA's 6^th strikeout was his 100^th on the year and logged his 4^th career combined shutout.
• DEREK RAMOS recorded his 13^th career multiple-hit game and 6^th career multiple RBI game.
• BLAKE HOLUB recorded his 9^th career multiple-hit game of his career and 6^th career multiple RBI game.
• ZACH SCHINDLER recorded his 10^th career multiple RBI game and 8^th of the season.
 
HIGHLIGHTS GAME TWO
• Hilltoppers win garners programs 6^th Heartland Conference regular season championship and will be the No. 1 seed in the Heartland Conference Tournament.
• SEU and STMU share the Heartland Conference regular season title for the second time (2015).
• The Hilltoppers win marks coach Penders' 7^th consecutive season with 30 or more wins.
• DYLAN MACKIN recorded his 8^th multiple-hit game of the season.
• JAKE DAVIS' first strikeout was the 40^th of his career.

STAT OF THE GAME I
9 – The Hilltoppers will make their ninth consecutive appearance to the Heartland Conference Tournament.
 
THEY SAID IT
Head Coach Rob Penders on the team's ability to bounce back after early season adversity…
"Yeah it's really incredible when you think about it. I mean the injuries that we've overcome and all the adversity that we've been through this year. It's pretty amazing when you kind of sit back and look at it. I haven't really had a bunch of time to do that because it's all been about survival almost for the last three or four weeks, but it's nice and it's something that the guys worked hard to do and we kind of kept our nose to the grindstone and got this thing done. I hope it's something that they're proud of because I am proud of them for doing it."
 
Penders on mentality for Heartland Conference Tournament…
"Well, like I told them, this is where it gets concentrated. You have mistakes that happen and things go wrong. We had that happen to us this year, but over a season you have a longer time to recover from your mistakes, recover from injuries, or recover from any adversity that you were facing where now you don't have that time. You just have to get through it and forget that first pitch and go to the next one. So that's what we have to focus on and now it's a lot more concentrated obviously with these tournaments coming up. You hope that you're playing well going into them and fortunately we are so we don't have that battle to face, but now it's just a matter of having four good teams in a condensed tournament and it's always tough to win it."

WHAT'S NEXT
The 2018 Heartland Conference Tournament field is set and the No.1 seeded Hilltoppers will challenge No. 4 seed Arkansas-Fort Smith May 10 at 1 p.m. in Cleaburne, Texas. The tournament is double elimination with No. 2 St. Mary's and No. 3 Lubbock Christian on the other side of the bracket facing off at 6 p.m. Live stats and video will be available at GoHilltoppers.com.

Follow St. Edward's Baseball all season long on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram using the handle @SEUBaseball.

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