
STEPHENVILLE – Tarleton was not able to muster up enough offense as they fell to St. Thomas, 6-3, on Saturday at the Tarleton Baseball Complex.
The Tommies (7-21) took the series with the win. They held the Texans (12-23) to five hits on the day, their lowest hit total since March 5 when they posted five hits in a loss to Mizzou.
Tarleton was led at the plate by Kemuel Thomas-Rivera who had two hits and bumped his hit streak up to 12 consecutive games. Colby Feris came through with two RBI to lead the Texans.
St. Thomas had four batters finish with multi-hit games. Will Nigut (1-0) picked up his first win of the season as he pitched an inning allowing one run, and Carl Cano earned the save after pitching the ninth and striking out two.
The Tommies struck first, which is not a good thing for Tarleton. They are 2-12 when trailing after the first inning. The Tommies plated two runs in the first, one on an RBI double from first baseman Charlie Bartholomew and the second on a wild pitch from Texan starting pitcher Bryce Hackett.
Hackett (2-5) was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs (two earned) in 3.1 innings pitched. He walked two and struck out two, throwing 58 pitches.
The Tommies added another run in the second inning to stretch their lead to 3-0. The back breaking inning came in the fourth when they brought three more across to make it a 6-0 ballgame. Jake Pennington entered in relief of Hackett in the fourth and allowed a single and walked three straight batters to load the bases.
Devon Patel then entered the game for Pennington with the bases loaded and allowed a two RBI single to make it 6-0.
Tarleton would respond in the bottom half of the fourth. Thomas-Rivera led the inning off with a double to right field. Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo then beat out an infield hit for a single to the shortstop to advance Thomas-Rivera to third.
Cody Vannoy stepped to the plate and layed down a sacrifice bunt to the pitcher to score Thomas-Rivera for Tarleton’s first run of the game. Feris followed that up with his first of two RBI of the game on a single through the left side to score Choy Foo.
The Texan pitching staff held St. Thomas scoreless in the final 5.0 frames as Patel, Zach Poe and Matthew Hickey all worked scoreless outings. Patel threw 2.2 innings allowing two hits and striking out one. Poe threw an inning giving up no hits on seven pitches. Hickey threw the final two innings of the game and gave up three hits but no runs.
The Texans brought one more run home in the sixth as Feris laid down a sacrifice bunt that scored Jake Escalon to make it 6-3.
Tarleton returns to action on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. CT at the Tarleton Baseball Complex as they take on Wiley College. The game will be streamed on the WAC Digital Network.
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