ALPINE- Sul Ross snagged an 11-9 win Sunday at Kokernot Field to avoid a sweep in their season-opening series against University of Dallas.
After surrendering one in the top of the first, the Lobos plated three in the bottom of the inning. Tim Johnson gave Sully their first lead of with a double up the middle that scored Richard Bailey and Tyler Tupper. Jett Hartley later brought Johnson home on a sacrifice fly for a 3-1 lead.
The Lobos kept the bats hot with five more runs in the bottom of the third. Jacob Ochoa first walked with the bases loaded to score Bailey. Karels then stepped up to the plate and singled to left field to score Johnson. Tye Lindsey was the next batter and he hit a sacrifice fly to left field that scored Hartley. Aston Leech finished the five-run third with a double to right field that brought in Karels and Ochoa for an 8-1 lead.
Sully broke into double-digits in the bottom of the fourth on Jared Lorenz's two-run homerun that scored Bailey for a 10-2 lead.
The Crusaders scored the next seven runs of the game with one in the fifth inning and six in the seventh to narrow the gap to 10-9.
Lindsey came up clutch in the bottom of the seventh when he plated Karels on his second sacrifice fly of the game for an 11-9 advantage.
Izaak Lujan replaced Ian Craigie in the seventh inning and threw 2.1 shutout innings of one-hit, no walk, four strikeout baseball to notch the first save of his career in the 11-9 win.
Karels finished the afternoon with a game-high three hits and scored twice.
Bailey came around to score a game-high three times.
Johnson, Lorenz, Lindsey, and Leech all had two RBI.
Isaac Gallego picked up his first win of the season after throwing 5.2 innings of three run, two earned, four-hit ball.
The Lobos move to 1-2 on the season. UD falls to 2-1.
Sully now treks west next week for the Cactus Classic in Tucson. They'll start Friday, February 7 with an 11:00 a.m. first pitch against University of the Redlands.
Saturday games
The University of Dallas baseball team completed the opening day sweep of Sul Ross State University winning Game one 8-1 and Game two 13-11. Dallas won the first two games to start the season for the first time since the 2012 season. UD scored 21 combined runs on the day off of 26 hits in an offensive flurry to begin the campaign. In Game One Zachary Taylor (Humble, Texas) led the Dallas offense with a 3-3 effort at the plate while driving in four runs. Conrad Voss (Corona, Calif.) pitched a six-hit complete game. In Game Two Andrew Womack (Vienna, Va.) blasted a grand slam and Taylor notched three more RBI to help the UD offense. Jamie Wallace (Crockett, Texas) came into pitch out of the bullpen to give UD pitching 5.1 innings and notching a career-high nine strikeouts.
Womack notched the first hit of the season for the Crusaders in the second inning, but Sul Ross was able to get out of the inning with to end the Dallas rally. Voss got the nod to pitch game one and made his third consecutive opening day start for Dallas. Voss gave up a couple hits in the first two innings, but shut the Lobos down to keep it a scoreless game. Freshman Mavrick Martinez (Friendswood, Texas) led off the third inning with a double down the third base line. After UD later hit into a double play, Nathan Patton (McKinney, Texas) doubled down the left field line to help score Martinez for the first run of the game. In the very next at bat Taylor singled to right center to bring in Patton to give UD a 2-0 lead in the third frame.
In the fourth Sul Ross found some two-out magic. Richard Bailey hit a double and eventually made it to third on a wild pitch. Jett Hartley singled to left field to drive in a run for the Lobos and make it a 2-1 ballgame. The Dallas fifth began with a leadoff hit from Martinez once again. Joseph Vondrachek (North St. Paul, Minn.) then drove a ball up the middle to put Dallas runners on first and third with nobody out. With two outs Taylor singled to right field on the first pitch to notch two RBI and put UD up 4-1. Voss gave up one hit in the Lobos bottom half of the fifth, but struck out the final batter to advance this game to the sixth.
With a new pitcher just making his appearance for the Lobos, Ross Lowe (Lewisville, Texas) homered to left center on the first pitch. This is when the wheels started to fall off the wagon for the Lobos. A hit batter, a single, a fielding error that led to a UD run, and another hit by pitch followed the Dallas homerun. Michael Jaquez (Irving, Texas) knocked in a runner with his single through the left side. Taylor then continued his hot day at the plate by drilling a ball to right field for a double to bring in the eighth Dallas run of the contest. Voss then turned in a 1-2-3 inning to shut down the Lobos to send the game to the seventh inning. Voss allowed one hit and one walk in the final frame, but got the job done to gather the complete game on the mound.
Taylor paced Dallas with three hits in three plate appearances, four RBI, and a double. Nicolas Hovde (Waco, Texas) and Martinez both had multiple hits in the game as they both went 2-4 at the plate. Lowe blasted the first homerun of the season for UD. The Crusaders finished with 12 hits. Voss went the distance on the bump allowing just six hits and one walk, while gathering 12 groundouts five strikeouts.
Every Dallas hitter reached base in the game.