SHERMAN, Texas — Southwestern baseball showed resiliency, bouncing back from a 7-1 loss to open today's doubleheader with an 8-5 victory in extra innings to win the three-game series 2-1 against the Austin College Kangaroos.
Game 1: Austin College 7, Southwestern 1
Southwestern struggled to get any offense against Austin College starting pitcher Ryan Culp, who struck out nine in eight innings while surrendering only three hits and one run with four walks.
Ben Ludwig pitched all eight innings for Southwestern, surrendering seven runs, only two of which were earned, on 12 hits with six strikeouts and two walks.
James Vaquero put Southwestern on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning, hitting an RBI single to right field, scoring Trent Raschke, who reached on a single up the middle. Jake Webster tied the game in the bottom of the inning, delivering an RBI single to right field, scoring Sergio De Paoli.
The Southwestern defense opened the bottom of the third inning with two consecutive outs but unraveled shortly after. Brandon Hill sparked a five-run inning with a single to left-center, setting up Logan Ballard's RBI-double. An error at first extended the inning, and Austin College capitalized with two walks and three hits, scoring four more runs.
Austin College added another run on a passed ball in the fourth.
Game 2: Southwestern 8, Austin College 5
Southwestern and Austin College played to a standstill until the Pirates were able to break the game open for good on a few Kangaroo miscues in the 11th inning for the 8-5 win.
The Pirates struck first in the top of the first inning. Southwestern's first four hitters reached safely with Maxwell Mims' leadoff single, Raschke and Vaquero drawing back-to-back walks, and Jacob Tanner driving in Mims on an RBI single to left field.
Southwestern's momentum was quickly halted with Jake Harris striking out and Christian Melillo grounding out into an inning-ending double play.
Austin College's pitching staff struggled with control in the third, surrendering a run on a wild pitch and another on a walk with bases loaded. The Kangaroos scored their first run in the bottom of the inning on a Scott Hosmer RBI single through the left side.
The Kangaroos tied the game in fourth, opening the inning with a single, double, and RBI single, followed by another score on a fielder's choice.
Landon Durdin scored on a wild pitch in the fifth inning, and Tanner scored Raschke on a groundout in the sixth, but Austin College responded with an RBI triple in the sixth and RBI single in the eighth to tie the game.
Both teams went scoreless over the next few innings until Southwestern scored three runs in the 11th. The Pirates opened with a walk and hit batter, scoring a run on Melillo's RBI single to right field. Then, Sam Castillo scored on a wild pitch, and Melillo scored on a throwing error.
Austin College hit a two-out single in the bottom of the inning but left the runner stranded to end the game. Ryan Corbett earned the win, pitching 3.1 innings in relief with four strikeouts, two hits, and no runs allowed.
Southwestern improves to 10-13 with a 2-7 conference record. The Pirates will host McMurry on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., followed by a three-game home series against Schreiner next weekend.