SAN ANGELO, TEXAS – A pair of late rallies from the Patriots secured a huge doubleheader sweep of the Rams on Sunday afternoon.
The Patriots offense combined for 16 hits and 14 runs on the day and
Mitchell Lee earned the save in both contests.
GAME ONE
The Rams took the early advantage in the bottom of the first after scoring on a passed ball. The Patriots answered right back with a pair of runs in the top of the second. After a
Kyle McShaffry double to lead off the inning, and a
Jordan Gochenour walk,
Ethan Bedgood drove a ball deep to center right at the warning track to move up both runners on a sacrifice fly. That brought up
Kyle Hawkins, who bounced a single through the right side to score both and give the Patriots the lead.
A leadoff home run from #5 Angelo State brought the score back to even, and a pair of hits put two runners in scoring position. Both of those runners scored on wild pitches to lead to a 4-2 lead for the Rams after the third inning.
Not deterred, the UT Tyler offense stepped up again, this time answering with three runs of their own in the top of the fourth. McShaffry led off the inning with a single, and
Lukas Polanco slid him over to third with a double. After a single from Gochenour scored McShaffry, Begood came up big with a double ripped into the left center field gap to score two more. That gave the Patriots the lead right back.
A run each for the Rams in the fifth and sixth innings gave them the lead by one heading into the top half of the seventh inning. After the first two hitters for UT Tyler reached base and a fielder's choice,
Tommy van de Sanden responded with a single to left field that scored one and knotted the score at six. After another fielder's choice, Polanco stepped to the plate and launched a pitch on a full count deep over the left field fence for the final blow to the Rams in game one.
Mitchell Lee came in for his first appearance of the season to close out business in the bottom half of the seventh. He struck out the first hitter he faced, but then issued back-to-back walks. After forcing a groundout to first, Lee struck out the final hitter of the game to seal the victory.
GAME TWO
It was the Patriots who struck first in the late game of the doubleheader. After
Tanner Roach and
Riley Lambert reached base, van de Sanden moved Roach over to third with a sacrifice fly. McShaffry came up with a deep fly ball to center field to score Roach from third.
After the top half of the first inning, both teams settled into a pitcher's duel through the fourth inning.
Nick Niebur got the ball for the Patriots to start the contest and gave up just one hit and one walk through four innings.
In the top half of the fifth,
Carson Cox led off with a walk before Roach drove him home with a double that was ripped down the left field line. That led to a 2-0 Patriots lead.
In the bottom half of the fifth, the Rams offense woke up and scored all four of their runs for the game. After back to back singles, Niebur forced back to back groundouts to allow just one run to score. After a hit batter and a walk, Tripp Clark hit a ground ball to first that was misplayed and allowed two runs to score.
Johnnie Krawietz came into the game in relief, but had a passed ball that scored the fourth and final run of the game for the Rams.
In similar fashion to game one, the Patriots bats showed they could back up the pitching staff with a bounceback inning. After Polanco worked a walk out of a full count, the Patriots found themselves on the receiving end of three more walks to plate their third run of the game. Bedgood came in to pinch hit with the bases loaded, and came up clutch. His single to left field scored another run and tied the contest at four. Roach was the next man up, and he came up with another RBI and broke the tie for UT Tyler.
Krawietz stepped up in the bottom half of the inning and shut down #5 Angelo State in order to set up a big seventh inning for Lee. Lee took the ball looking for another save on the day, but it was a little bumpy.
After hitting the first hitter, Lee forced a fly out from Aaron Walters that held the runner in place. Clark moved the runner to third with a single and there were two runners on with just one out. Lee got the next batter to pop out to catcher on the next pitch, and set up a two on, two out situation. After a long at-bat, Lee got his break with a groundout to shortstop and the Patriots completed the sweep on the day.
Four different Patriots hitters had at least two RBI's on the day.
Lukas Polanco collected three thanks to his big home run in game one and a combined 4-for-7 effort in both games.
Ethan Bedgood drove in three while going 2-for-3 on the day.
Tanner Roach had two RBI's in game two and scored two runs over the two games.
Kyle Hawkins had just one hit over both games, but it was one that drove in a pair of runs.
Ryan Rickett and
Brandon Petix combined for six innings in game one with six hits and six strikeouts between them. Petix came away with the victory after allowing just two runs.
Nick Niebur and
Johnnie Krawietz combined for six innings in game two. The pair recorded five strikeouts and Krawietz earned the victory.
Mitchell Lee earned saves in both games. He pitched the final inning in both contests and gave up just one hit and had two strikeouts.
The Patriots will be back in action tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m. for the fourth and final game of the series against #5 Angelo State.
