TYLER, TEXAS – It was a special day at Irwin Field as the UT Tyler baseball program honored 13 seniors for their time and commitment to the program as well as gave several seniors their own graduation ceremony. On the heels of those special occasions, the Patriots would split the doubleheader as they took game two by a score of 17-10.
 
GAME ONE
 
Game one of the doubleheader on Saturday would see a battle as both teams jumped on the board early. Miles Clack got the start for the Patriots, and got a strikeout and a flyout after allowing an opening walk. With two outs in the inning, the Lions got a single and a hit by pitch to load the bases before a two RBI single gave them a 2-0 lead.
 
The Patriots battled right back, as Kaston Mason drew a walk and Ethan Bedgood blasted one over the left field wall to tie the game right back up. Austin Ochoa followed, and he deposited a baseball deep over the left field wall himself to hand the Patriots a 3-2 lead.
 
Neither team would score in the second inning, as Clack found a rhythm with a pair of strikeouts. In the top of the third however, the Lions found ther stride as a pair of singles and an RBI double plated the tying run. Two walks would follow to plate another run, and Clack would come out of the game for Julio Garcia. Four straight walks ensued as four more runs came around to score, and Justin Schrader would come on to finish out the inning with a strikeout.
 
That big inning gave the Lions an 8-4 lead, and it would grow to 10-4 as three straight singles plated a run in the fourth and then a well executed sacrifice squeeze drove in the second run.
 
The Lions would tack on another run in the top of the fifth as Bryson Adair came on to slow up the UAFS offense. He gave up just a solo home run in the inning while posting a strikeout, flyout, and foulout. UAFS would plate one more run in the sixth with another solo home run to take a 12-4 lead.
 
In the bottom half of the sixth inning, the Patriots bats would suddenly find life again, as Lane Hutchinson led off with a single and Carson Cox walked his way aboard. Adrian Minjares moved them both over on a groundout, and Hayden Clearman would draw a walk to load the bases. Two batters later, it was Jordan Gochenour who came up big with a grand slam to straightaway center field to cut the lead down to just 12-8.
 
A scoreless seventh inning ensued for the Lions as Adair and Garrett Arredondo combined for a 1-2-3 inning. That gave the ball back to the offense, but they were unable to get the rally going and would fall 12-8.
 
Miles Clack would be handed just his first loss of the season after going 2.2 innings in the contest. His record goes to 6-1 on the year as he struck out five batters in the outing.
 
Jordan Gochenour led the Patriots offense with four RBI as he, Bedgood, and Ochoa each hit a home run in the contest.
 
GAME TWO
 
Brayden Freeman got the ball for the Patriots to start game two of the day, and he worked a quick inning around a walk to shut down the Lions bats.
 
That quick inning and maybe some leftover momentum from the grand slam in game one got the Patriots going full steam ahead in the bottom of the first as they plated nine runs on eight hits to take a commanding lead.
 
Gochenour led off with a triple and then scored from a Mason single. A hit by pitch on Bedgood and an infield single from Ochoa loaded the bases, and Hutchinson drew his own RBI hit by pitch and Cox drove in the third run with an RBI single to keep them loaded.
 
That brought Blake LaBuda to the plate for his first at-bat of the series, and he hammered a pitch to left center field that cleared the wall and the bases for a grand slam and a 7-0 Patriots lead. The next batter to step in was Hayden Clearman, and he followed suit with his own solo shot to right center field for an 8-0 lead.
 
Three batters later, it was Mason again, and this time he blasted a solo home run that hit three quarters of the way up the light pole in right center field for the ninth run of the inning.
 
Just as they did in game one, UAFS would bounce back to the Patriots offense as they plated four runs in the second inning to dig into the big lead. A three run blast was the big catalyst, and a pair of singles followed by a sacrifice fly cut the lead down to 9-4.
 
Freeman would bounce back in the top of the third as he got a groundout and a strikeout, and was also assisted by LaBuda who threw out a runner trying to steal.
 
That big inning spurred on the offense yet again, as the Patriots caught fire again in the third. Gochenour led off with a double, and scored on a Bedgood sacrifice fly. Tommy van de Sanden doubled to left center, and came around to score thanks to a Hutchinson RBI single. LaBuda would drive him in two batters later with a single, and Edward Ortiz drove in three huge runs on a double to left center to break the game wide open and give the Patriots a 15-4 lead.
 
After a big double play to get a pair of outs in the top of the fourth, the Lions would draw two hit by pitches and two walks to plate a run. That brought in Travis Onisto, and he got a big strikeout to get out of the jam.
 
After a scoreless fourth for the Patriots offense, the Lions would score a pair of runs on a double and a single and chase Onisto from the game. He handed it over to Harrison Lee, who would walk a pair of hitters before giving the ball to Nick Oslovar.
 
Oslovar drew a weak groundout that the Patriots got the force out at home on, and then punched out the next batter looking to mark the second consecutive inning the Patriots pitching staff struck out the final hitter with the bases loaded.
 
In the bottom half of the fifth, Hutchinson, Cox, and LaBuda reached on a pair of walks and a single, and then Clearman drew a hit by pitch to score a run. Ortiz would then ground into a double play, but it also brought home a run and gave the Patriots a 17-10 lead.
 
UAFS would get back on the board with a two run home run in the sixth inning, but Oslovar did his job with two flyouts and a foulout to limit the damage. In the seventh inning, he would work a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout to complete the Patriots win.
 
Brayden Freeman would get the win in game number two as he scattered six hits and five runs after the Patriots offense posted a pair of big innings early in the game.
 
Five different Patriots posted a multi-hit game in game two and five Patriots also posted a multi-RBI game. Blake LaBuda led the way as he posted a 2-for-3 night with two runs scored, a grand slam, and five total RBI to lead the team.
 
The Patriots will now focus their efforts into Sunday's regular season finale against UAFS as they still are in contention to potentially take the number two seed in the LSC postseason tournament that is set to begin next weekend.