CLEBURNE, Texas — The third-seeded Southwestern baseball team opened the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference (SCAC) Championship Tournament with a 7-5 loss to the second-seeded Texas Lutheran University Bulldogs.
Southwestern struggled with early control problems, walking eight Texas Lutheran hitters through the first two innings and 11 overall to surrender seven runs on just five hits.
Starter Aaron Clark walked Texas Lutheran leadoff hitter Caleb Maly and moved him to third on a passed ball and wild pitch before walking Cullen Motsinger to put runners on the corners. Maly scored the first run of the game on a passed ball. Clark would walk two more before getting out of the inning with just the one-run deficit.
The Bulldogs did a much better job of capitalizing on opportunities in the bottom of the second inning. Simon Scales opened with a leadoff single followed by back-to-back walks to load the bases, ending Clark's afternoon.
J.J. Slack took the mound for Southwestern and walked Motsinger to score a run. Austin Colon hit a two-RBI double to right-center, scoring Maly and Collin Docker. Slack walked Tyler Cauley, struck out Joe Jimenez, and hit Tyler post with bases loaded to score the inning's fourth run before striking out Randy Huerta and Scales.
Southwestern got on the scoreboard in the top of the third on a Preston Witt RBI-single, scoring Maxwell Mims, who reached on an infield single.
The Pirates came alive in the top of the fourth, opening the inning with three consecutive singles from Lance Kruse, Landon Durdin, and an RBI from Jacob Tanner. Durdin and Tanner advance to second and third on a wild pitch, setting up a Ted Lobkowicz sacrifice fly to score Durdin. A pitch hit Mims, and Jake Harris grounded out to second, scoring Tanner to get the Pirates within one at 5-4.
Texas Lutheran responded in the bottom of the inning, scoring on a Jiminez RBI triple to score Colon and a Post sacrifice fly to score Jiminez.
Southwestern struck again in the top of the sixth. Tanner opened the inning with a single through the left side and advanced to third on a passed ball. Two outs later, Harris drove Tanner in with a ground-rule double.
The Pirates were held to just two hits over the next three innings, going down in order to Texas Lutheran reliever Blade Strzelczyk.
Southwestern got great production from the bottom of its lineup, hitting a combined 7-for-12 with four runs scored from the seventh, eighth, and ninth spots. Kruse and Durdin were each 2-for-4 with a run scored. Tanner hit 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored. Mims hit 2-for-4 with a run scored, and Harris and Witt each had one hit.
Clark was charged with four earned runs off one hit and six walks for Southwestern. Slack pitched seven innings, surrendering three runs off five hits with five walks. Texas Lutheran's Brendan Beard pitched four innings in relief, giving up one earned run with five strikeouts to pick up the win. Strzelczyk earned the save.
Southwestern drops to 18-18 with the loss. The Pirates will face Centenary tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Southwestern went 3-0 against them during the season.