AUSTIN, Texas – It wasn't always the cleanest baseball, but when the dust settled, St. Edward's baseball emerged with an 8-7 victory over the Lubbock Christian Chaps to split the four-game weekend series 2-2.
Getting his first career home start, freshman pitcher JARED SCHAEFFER was solid, striking out six through six innings of work with one walk, no earned runs and five hits surrendered.
Unfortunately, the normally stingy Hilltopper defense struggled mightily, committing six errors to allow a dangerous Lubbock Christian offense extra opportunities.
The Chaps used a leadoff walk and one-out single through the right side to put runners on the corners, then scored on an overthrow from behind the plate to second on a steal. Schaeffer responded by striking out Nate Van Maanen, but Jarred Gibson reached on an error to score another unearned run for the 2-0 lead.
St. Edward's opened the bottom of the inning with three consecutive singles from TREVOR SEBEK, CONNOR COX, and LANCE LITTLE, with Little driving in two on a shot through the right side to tie the game. Schaeffer retired the next nine hitters in order, striking out two each in the third and fourth innings.
Schaeffer could have retired the side in order in the sixth. However, another error allowed Gibson to reach for a second time, and the Chaps capitalized with back-to-back hits from Ryan Ball and Hayden Blair, with the latter driving in Gibson on an RBI double to left field for the 3-2 lead.
AUSTIN ESSEX replaced Schaeffer in the seventh and surrendered a leadoff double to Carson Ogilvie, then a two-out RBI single to Van Maanen to extend the Chaps' lead.
After six solid innings and a strikeout to start the seventh, Lubbock Christain starting pitcher Andrew Duran started showing heavy fatigue, walking Sebek and hitting Cox to end his afternoon. However, the Chaps' control problems persisted when Colton Brown replaced Duran and walked CULLEN AINSWORTH and Little to plate a St. Edward's run. DAVIS DREWEK followed with a hard grounder to first, with Van Maneen overthrowing second, scoring Cox and Little to give St. Edward's the lead.
Lubbock Christian turned to relief pitcher Koi Carrillo and St. Edward's turned to pinch-hitter RYAN FEDDERSEN, with the Hilltoppers getting the best of that matchup with a two-RBI single through the right side.
Then, AJ MYERS pinch-ran for Feddersen, advanced to second on a wild pitch and stole third as MATTHEW GILES drew a walk to put runners on the corners. Finally, KYLER KERLIN turned a sacrifice bunt into an RBI single with some nifty baserunning, placing the ball perfectly down the first-base line and dodging the tag with a jump cut to the outside for the RBI single for the 8-4 lead.
KEVIN SKWERES replaced Essex on the mound in the eighth and retired three of four in a scoreless inning. Another error to open the ninth made things interesting for St. Edward's when Gibson hit a three-run blast to pull Lubbock Christian within one with two outs, but Chris Shull grounded out to end the game.
Cox and Little were each 2-for-3, with Cox scoring two runs and Little driving in two RBIs. Kerline also had two hits, driving in the final Hilltopper run.
St. Edward's improves to 32-9 with a 30-9 conference record. The Hilltoppers will travel next weekend for a big series between the top two teams in the Lone Star Conference, playing at Angelo State with the first game on Friday at 6:30 p.m.
