AUSTIN, Texas – NIC LUNA froze the Lone Star Conference's reigning Hitter of the Week and newly crowned career home run king Brevin McCool, striking out the league's top hitter looking to clinch a 10-8 victory over Lubbock Christian and 3-1 series win. 
 
Luna was spectacular in three scoreless innings of relief, getting St. Edward's out of a seemingly hopeless jam, allowing only two hits with no walks, and punctuating the performance with the strikeout on the game's final play. 
 
St. Edward's opened the game in a bind, loading the bases with one out on an error, a single, and a walk in the first inning. Starter CARSON BLAKELEY struggled with his control early, walking Niklaus Baumback, then hitting Brock Tierina and Johnny Gomez III to allow two runs before striking out Adam Garcia and inducing a fly ball from Kade York to mitigate the damage. 
 
Lubbock Christian starter Jake Llaneza fared similarly, walking TRAVIS CHESTNUT, LANCE LITTLE, and MARCO BARRERA to set up DIEGO SOLIS's RBI on a fielder's choice before striking out TREVOR SEBEK to limit the damage. 
 
The two starting pitchers' paths rapidly diverged like a Robert Frost poem from there. Blakeley settled in and limited the Chaps to a run in the third and sixth innings. Llaneza got rocked by NICHOLAS ANDERSON on a two-run blast in the second, then surrendered four runs on three hits in the third on a two-RBI double from CARLO FIGUEROA and a two-RBI single from DYLAN TATE in the third for the 7-2 lead, ending his day. 
 
Adam Duran replaced Llaneza and silenced St. Edward's bats until the sixth inning, striking out four in 5.2 innings of work and limiting the Hilltoppers to two hits and a walk while hitting two batters. 
 
Duran's efforts bought the Chaps time to collect themselves and chip away at St. Edward's lead. Garcia hit a two-out solo blast, and Jacob Gutierrez hit an RBI single to left field in the sixth to cut St. Edward's lead to 7-4. 
 
CONNOR COX broke through against Duran in the sixth, ripping a two-run home run to right field, notching his second home run and sixth RBi of the series, bringing his season totals to a team-high nine and 49. 
 
St. Edward's turned the game over to its bullpen in the seventh, minus closer PARKER TENNILL, who was expended with two appearances and 4.1 innings in Sunday's doubleheader sweep, earning a win and a save. 
 
ULISES TOVAR started the seventh and struggled in only his third appearance this season, walking three Chaps and hitting another to plate a run. Luna took over with bases loaded, no outs, and an inauspicious start when St. Edward's committed a fielding error to score two unearned runs. Luna kept his composure and threw three consecutive groundouts with one more run scoring to escape clinging to a 9-8 lead. 

Duran returned for the bottom of the seventh and hit Solis and Sebek, setting up an insurance run on CARLO FIGUEROA's fielder choice for the game's final run. 
 
Luna retired the first three hitters in the eighth and three of four in the ninth, catching McCool looking to end the game. 
 
Six different Hilltoppers had a hit, with Cox, Figueroa, and Anderson recording two RBI each. Solis and Tate each drove in one run. Solis, Figueroa, and Anderson all scored twice. 
 
St. Edward's improves to 27-11 with a 26-10 conference record. The Hilltoppers will travel to play the No. 4-ranked and the LSC-leading Angelo State Rams this weekend.