AUSTIN, Texas – St. Edward's baseball fought back a major Texas-Tyler rally behind a perfect afternoon from DAVIS DREWEK and clutch pitching from KEVIN SKWERES to open its four-game series with a 7-4 win over the Patriots.
St. Edward's jumped to a four-run lead through the first three innings behind outstanding production from its three and four spots in the lineup and a strong start on the mound from WESLEY GAFFORD.
Gafford opened with a signature performance through the first five innings, pounding the strike zone low to both sides of the plate, getting ahead in the count, and racking up strikeouts by getting hitters to chase pitches with six strikeouts to one walk, one hit batter, and a hit surrendered.
After getting shut down with a three-up, three-down inning in the first, St. Edward's offense came to life with three runs in the second. Texas-Tyler starting pitcher Dylan Blomquist showed great movement and control with his slider, less so with his fastball, and the Hilltoppers' bats were all over both.
Drewek sparked the offense with a leadoff single to right-center, and CULLEN AINSWORTH drove him in with a triple driven into deep center field for the first run. Then, after LUKE JOHNSON drew a walk, JOSH GRAHAM singled through the right side to score Ainsworth.
Then, HUNTER CONNER executed a sacrifice bunt to advance Graham and Johnson to second and third, and WESTON SYMES scored the latter on a groundout to shortstop.
The Hilltoppers added another run in the third inning. LANCE LITTLE led off with a double to right, then Drewek surprised the Patriot defense with a perfectly-placed bunt between the mound and first for a single, advancing Little to third. Ainsworth grounded into a fielder's choice with the out at second but drove in Little for the 4-0 lead.
St. Edward's appeared to be in cruise control until the sixth. First, Texas-Tyler leadoff hitter Carson Cox checked his swing with two strikes by the slimmest of margins to avoid a strikeout, then reached on an error. Then, Gafford walked Nathan Carriere and surrendered a single to Jordan Gochenour to load the bases, and surrendered two runs on separate wild pitches, with the second on a swinging strikeout into the dirt that allowed the hitter to reach.
Ethan Bedgood and Adrian Minjares followed with back-to-back RBI singles into the outfield to tie the game before Gafford got out of the inning with a strikeout and groundout to end his afternoon with nine strikeouts, two walks, and four runs surrendered on four hits in six innings.
St. Edward's AUSTIN ESSEX and UT-Tyler's Julio Garcia took the mound for their respective teams in the seventh inning, surrendering one hit in a scoreless inning.
Essex ran into trouble in the eighth with a leadoff walk and single, followed by a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third with one out. KEVIN SKWERES replaced Essex, then walked Tommy van de Sanden to load the bases. However, the sophomore relief pitcher kept his composure and battled back with back-to-back strikeouts to escape the inning unscathed.
St. Edward's picked up two outs to open the bottom of the eighth, but TREVOR SEBEK sparked a rally with a single up the middle. Conner Cox followed with a walk, and Little put St. Edward's ahead with an RBI single up the middle.
Texas-Tyler replaced Garcia with Garrett Arredondo. Drewek greeted him with a two-RBI double before ending the inning by getting thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple. Skweres remained strong in the ninth, striking out Gochenour and inducing back-to-back outs to center to pick up his third win.
Drewek hit a perfect 5-for-5 with two RBI and a run scored, Little hit 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored, and Sebek hit 2-for-5 with a run scored. Ainsworth, Graham, and Conner each had one hit.
St. Edward's improves to 17-5 with a 15-5 conference record. The Hilltoppers and Patriots will continue the series tomorrow with a doubleheader at noon.
