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STEPHENVILLE (March 8, 2017) – With one out and runners on second and third in the eighth inning of a 2-2 game, St. Mary’s decided to intentionally walk Austin Call to face Dylan Lemons and the junior from Alvarado made the Rattlers pay.
Lemons cashed in with his seventh home run of the season and his first career grand slam to open the flood gates and ultimately deliver a 6-2 win for the Texans Wednesday afternoon.
The team’s designated hitter in Wednesday’s lineup put an exclamation point on Tarleton’s six-run, eighth inning rally that started when Francisco Rodriguez reached on a passed ball strikeout and Jose Reyes followed up with an infield single to bring up Hunter Seales.
Seales, a senior from Rockwall, cashed in with a two-strike single back up the middle to get Tarleton on the board with its first run of the game. Jake Shelby came up next and cashed in on another two-strike opportunity when the junior shortstop ripped a double down the left field line to plate Reyes and move Sealed and himself into scoring position.
After a pop-up, the Rattlers made the decision to load the bases for Lemons who promptly unloaded them with a jack over the left center wall to give the Texans a 6-2 advantage.
Eli McLane came in to pitch the ninth and closed it out despite two hits. McLane finished off a six-pitcher effort, which started with two innings from Colby Fowler. Matt Herrick and Chris Reed followed up with two innings apiece before Hunter Houston tossed a scoreless seventh.
Conner Fletcher earned the win to improve to 3-0 after throwing the top of the eight before giving way to McLane in the ninth.
“It was a nice job by the kids of responding from this past weekend,” said head coach Bryan Conger. “We were able to put together a big inning late and build some momentum heading into this weekend. The coaching staff is really proud of the total team effort from the team today.”
Tarleton will head to Lawton, Oklahoma for a four-game, non-conference series at Cameron, beginning Friday at 3 p.m.
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