AUSTIN, Texas – The St. Mary's Rattlers fought tooth and nail for their season, closing a six-run deficit to two, but St. Edward's held tight to win 8-2 and advance in the Lone Star Conference Baseball Championship Tournament. 

St. Edward's opened with a blistering start, scoring five runs in the first two innings and retiring the first nine Rattler hitters in order with three strikeouts behind a dominant start from LUKE SHORT, who became the program's single-season leader in strikeouts in the regular season finale. 

Errant pitches cost St. Mary's again when starting pitcher John Curtis walked CONNOR COX and LANCE LITTLE with one out. DAVIS DREWEK plated the first run with an RBI double down the right-field line. Then, Little scored on a balk, and CULLEN AINSWORTH drove in Drewek with a single driven up the middle. 

St. Edward's turned to small ball in the second after KYLER KERLIN reached on an error to start the inning. WESTON SYMES followed by reaching on an error off a sacrifice bunt, putting runners in the corners, and TREVOR SEBEK moved him into scoring position with another sacrifice bunt. 

Cox took advantage with a two-RBI single, hitting 2-for-3 with two RBIs and two runs scored to wrap up his first collegiate playoff series 4-for-7 with three RBIs, three runs scored, and two walks over two games. 

St. Mary's fought back with back-to-back singles from Jake Mares and Jacob King to open the fourth. Both advanced on a passed ball and then Clay Bradford drove in Mares with a groundout to second. Then, after Brandon Broughton walked, Ethan Parrish scored King on a sacrifice fly to deep center field, with King sliding in just under Ainsorth's tag on the throw from Drewek in the outfield. 

The Hilltoppers answered immediately with two runs in the bottom of the inning. After getting the Kerlin and Symes out to start the fourth, Curtis hit Sebek and walked Cox, ending his afternoon. Andrew Girod replaced him and hit Little to load the bases, then walked Drewek and Ainsworth back-to-back to score two runs. 

Short retired the side in order in the fifth, striking out Ryan McGowen to end the inning, and St. Edward's scored another run in the bottom of the inning. MATTHEW GILES singled up the middle, then Kerlin singled on a bunt. Girod recovered to strike out the next two but threw a wild pitch to score Giles. 

St. Edward's cruised to two outs to start the sixth, but Bradford singled to the right side, then St. Mary's got back-to-back home runs to left field from Broughton and Parrish to pull within three. 

Both teams retired the side in order in the seventh before Short got in trouble in the eighth. After Mares flied out to right field, then walked King and Bradford. Keven Skweres replaced Short and surrendered a sacrifice fly to Broughton to score King before getting out of the inning. 

St. Edward's left two stranded in the bottom of the eighth, and Skweres hit Rudy Solis to open the ninth. Then, Skewers retired the next two with flyouts to center and left field, walked McGowen, and ended the game with a Mares groundout to earn the save. 

St. Edward's improves to 38-13 and advances to play the Texas-Tyler and Texas A&M-Kingsville winner next Thursday.