A&M falls in series opener

Houston-Victoria routs Eagles, 7-1

Texas A&M University-Texarkana started off its nextto-last home conference series on a sour note Friday.

The University of Houston-Victoria came back from an early 1-0 deficit to the Eagles with seven unanswered runs to win the opener, 7-1, at George Dobson Field.

The teams play a Red River Athletic Conference doubleheader today starting at 1 p.m. back at George Dobson.

“This isn’t what we expect to see, especially not at the end of the year when everybody is playing somebody that matters, with the chance to move forward or the chance to move back (in the standings)” Texarkana head coach Steve Jones said. “Their kid carved us up. We didn’t do a very good job with it, and so you just have to tip your hat to him.

“We kinda went into panic

mode hitting a little bit and swung at bad pitches and didn’t get his pitch count up.”

All-American first baseman Andrew Gross never hurt the Eagles, but the rest of the Jaguars’ lineup got in on the action in the fourth inning, chasing TAMU-T starter Jason Jones.

With one out, after Jones struck out Gross for the second time in as many at-bats, Chase Tamez singled to center for Houston-Victoria (11-18, 7-9). Dalton Rodriguez followed with a hard grounder to center, and a hit batsman loaded the bases. Joshua Fonseco doubled into the right-center power alley to give the Jaguars a 2-1 lead.

A groundout made it 3-1, and Derek Maciejeski doubled over the bag at third to bring another run around. Jacob Atkinson followed with an RBI single up the middle, and an error put two on for Gross, who ended the inning with a fielder’s choice.

The Eagles (22-17, 10-6) got a pair of hits off UHV starter Collin Quinn in the first, Michael Moore lining a 1-out single to center, and after a walk, Moore scoring on Cade Thomason’s line drive to center. Quinn ended up giving up just three more hits to finish with five hits in 7 1-3 innings, striking out five, walking three and hitting a batter, throwing 110 pitches.

Ross Bludau worked the final 1 2-3 innings for the Jaguars, giving up one hit, fanning four with no free passes.

Chandler Minze pitched the final five innings for Texarkana. He gave up four hits, struck out four and was charged with two runs—both earned.

“Jones pitched really good last week for us, and that’s kinda been the story for us,” Jones said. “You’re facing a Friday night guy, you can’t come out and give up five runs in a inning. You’ve got to compete, and now you’re behind the 8 ball with (facing) a pretty good kid on the mound. I was disappointed in the way we showed up, and I’m having a hard time getting these guys to understand the urgency of everything at this point.”

TAMU-T stranded 10 on base in the game, one in every inning but the fifth.

Maciejeski was 3 for 3 with a double for the Jags, Jacob Atkinson was 2 for 2 with a double, and Tamez finished 3 for 5. Thomason was 2 for 4 to lead the Eagles. Houston-Victoria 000 502000 — 7 10 3 TAMU-T 100 000000 — 1 6 1

Collin Quinn, Ross Bludau (8) and Dalton Rodriguez. Jason Jones, Chandler Minez (5) and Michael Moore. WP-Quinn. LP-Jones.