AUSTIN, Texas — Baseball has a way of revealing everything over the course of a day. The rhythm, the resilience, the cracks in execution—it all shows up eventually. For St. Edward's on Saturday, it showed up in two different forms.
The Hilltoppers split Saturday's doubleheader with UT Permian Basin, walking off the opener in a moment that felt inevitable before running into a surge they couldn't quite slow in the nightcap. With the split, St. Edward's holds a 2-1 lead in the four-game series heading into Sunday's finale.
The afternoon began with the Hilltoppers settling into their kind of game—one built on pressure and patience. They answered quickly after falling behind, tying things in the second when
BOSTON LEE brought home Jackson Shofield, then leaned into situational baseball in the third. A bunt, a misplay, a sacrifice fly. Nothing flashy, just the steady accumulation of winning baseball that pushed St. Edward's in front, 3-1.
By the fifth, it looked like control.
KAIN SANCHEZ lined a two-run single to right, scoring
TREVOR SEBEK and
KADE NATHMAN to extend the lead to 5-1, the Hilltoppers dictating tempo and forcing UT Permian Basin to play uphill.
But baseball doesn't stay quiet for long.
The Falcons answered in a single, decisive swing of momentum in the sixth, stringing together five runs to flip the game on its head and take a 6-5 lead. A swinging strikeout in the dirt turned disastrous when the throw to first plunked the runner, turning a routine out into a baserunner and scoring a runner from third.
Texas Permian Basin tacked on four more unearned runs, scoring on a groundout and back-to-back singles that recorded three RBI.
It was the kind of inning that tests whether a team's posture tightens or stays loose, presses or trusts.
St. Edward's chose trust.
In the seventh, the Hilltoppers rebuilt the inning one piece at a time. A reach on error. A stolen base. A walk. A sacrifice bunt. Suddenly, the tying run stood 90 feet away, the winning run in scoring position, and the dugout energy shifted from tense to certain.
DAWSON STUTZ made it count.
His single through the left side brought home two runs, sealing a 7-6 walk-off win that felt less like a break and more like a continuation of who this team has been—composed, connected, and ready for the next moment.
The second game never quite found that same rhythm.
St. Edward's again struck first, manufacturing a run in the opening frame, but left two stranded in scoring position. The Hilltoppers answered a Falcon push in the third with a
NICO RUEDAS triple and a Jackson Shofield RBI to tie the game at 3-3.
For a moment, it looked like the Hilltoppers might carry the same late-game control into the nightcap.
Instead, the margins flipped.
A defensive miscue in the fourth opened the door, and UT Permian Basin stepped through it, scoring three runs to seize control. The Falcons kept building from there, adding a solo home run in the fifth and another run in the sixth, stretching the lead while the Hilltoppers searched for the one swing that could pull them back into it.
There were opportunities. Seven walks drawn created traffic, but the hit to unlock it never came. St. Edward's finished with three hits, unable to match the Falcons' timely production in an 8-3 loss.
And that's the story of a doubleheader, sometimes. One game where everything arrives right on time, another where it just misses. What doesn't change is the position.
The Hilltoppers are still in control of the series, carrying a 2-1 edge into Sunday with a chance to finish what they started. The formula hasn't shifted: pressure, patience, and belief in the next inning.
On the Hilltop, that's usually enough.
