CANYON, Texas – St. Edward's baseball left 10 runners stranded in a 5-3 loss to No. 19-ranked West Texas A&M to open the weekend's four-game series. 
 
Both teams took advantage of early control issues. St. Edward's starter JACK GRANACK walked the first two West Texas A&M hitters, then Ryan Camacho and Kory Schmidt followed with back-to-back RBI singles through the infield before Granack struck out the next three hitters. 
 
DILLON FLORES and DAVIS DREWEK opened the top of the second with back-to-back walks. Then MATT JOHNSON moved them both over on a sacrifice bunt, and HUNTER CONNER drove Flores in on a groundout to second. 
 
Granack hit Josh Zapata to start the second, leading to another West Texas A&M run on an RBI double down the right-field line from Kyle Micklus for the 3-1 lead. 
 
West Texas A&M plated another run in the fourth on a throwing error from Flores behind the plate on a steal attempt at third with runners on first and second. 
 
AUSTIN ESSEX replaced Granack (L, 0-1) to start the sixth and walked two of the first three hitters while striking out Zapata, and Rodric Black capitalized with an RBI single up the middle for the 5-3 lead. 
 
St. Edward's cut into its deficit with two runs in the seventh, getting an RBI single from TREVOR SEBEK to center field and an infield RBI single from NICHOLAS ANDERSON. 
 
The Hilltoppers followed with a three-up and three-down in the bottom of the seventh, leaving two stranded in the eighth and another runner in the ninth. 
 
Sebek led St. Edward's with a 2-for-4 performance, driving in one RBI and drawing a walk. Anderson, WESTON SYMES, and KYLER KERLIN each had a hit. Camacho led West Texas A&M with two hits in four at-bats, and each of the Buffs' first four hitters had one RBI, and the first two also scored a run each. 
 
St. Edward's drops to 3-4 with a 3-2 conference record. The Hilltoppers will continue the series against West Texas A&M with a doubleheader tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.