ASC Tournament Central   |   LETU Postgame Interview

ALPINE, Texas - A four-run eighth-inning rally and 11th inning walk-off balk allowed for the LeTourneau University baseball team to win their second game of the day with a 9-8, extra-innings win over Hardin-Simmons University in the American Southwest Conference Tournament "Red Bracket" at Kokernot Field in Alpine, Texas on Saturday, May 5th. 

LETU improves to 23-18 overall and 2-1 in postseason play and will play in tomorrow's ASC Tournament "Red Bracket" Championship while the Cowboys see their season come to an end in heartbreaking fashion at 16-27 overall. 

Runs proved to be hard to come by in the first two innings of play, with the YellowJackets scoring the only run scored before the first six outs were recorded with an RBI bases-loaded walk from Lee Hosie. 

A fielding error and RBI triple allowed HSU to come back and tie the game at 1-1 in the top of the third before scoring the go-ahead run on a dropped third strike when LeTourneau elected to record the out at first. With the score still 2-1 in favor of Hardin-Simmons in the bottom of the fourth, Bubba Valdez would lead off the inning with double and come around to score on Noah Mahoney's second home run of the day by going opposite field and over the right field wall to put LETU back up 3-2. 

The YellowJackets added a single run in the bottom of the fifth on a delayed steal of second that would allow for Jacob Jones to steal home, but saw HSU score four runs on three hits and an error that allowed the Cowboys to take the lead. Hardin-Simmons managed to hold LETU scoreless in the sixth, and tack on two additional runs in the top of the seventh to double up LeTourneau by a score of 8-4. 

Gonzalo Sosa would start a seventh-inning rally for LETU, drawing a leadoff walk and coming around to score with Jones on a Carson Dickey two RBI double to left field which forced a Cowboy pitching change. Two wild pitches allowed Dickey to advance to third and then score to cut the deficit down to 8-7 before another wild pitch on a strikeout put the game-tying run (Valdez) on first. Following a single that would move Valdez from first to third, Mahoney would drive in his third run of the game with a sacrifice fly that tied the game and gave LeTourneau new life once again in the ASC Tournament. 

Neither team would make any noise in the eighth, but have a prime opportunity to take the lead in the ninth as both the Cowboys and YellowJackets left the bases loaded to send the game into extra-innings. 

In the first-extra frame of the game, Hardin-Simmons would draw a two-out walk but do nothing more which would give LETU another chance to walk-off with a game winner. The walk-off would have to wait however as a two out walk by Will Bradshaw would be erased on a batter's interference call to end the inning and send things to the 11th. 

Nothing would be had by the Cowboys in the top of the 11th to give LeTourneau yet another chance to end the game in their half of the inning, with the first two batters reaching base safely to put the game-winning run at second with no outs. A sacrifice bunt by Brandon Ramirez would move the runners to second and third before an intentional walk loaded the bases to bring up Eli Birriel. Birriel never would get a chance to become the hero as a balk would be called before a pitch was thrown to advance all runners and end the game. 

Clutch pitching once again came through when LeTourneau needed it most, with Valdez and Bradshaw combining to throw the final 4 innings and not allow a single run. In total, the LETU pitching staff struck out 12 Cowboy batters with Bryce Brueggemeyer (4), Sosa (3), Valdez (1), and Bradshaw (4) putting together the double-digit effort. 

Nearly matching their morning output, the YellowJackets recorded 14 hits in the game which included five extra-base hits and a four-for-six performance from Dickey. Mahoney made the most of his opportunities, collecting two hits in three official at-bats to go along with two free passes. 

LeTourneau will look to flip the script on Texas-Dallas tomorrow at 1 p.m. in a game that they must win to force a winner-take-all game to immediately follow. This will be the second meeting in three days for the YellowJackets and Comets, with both meetings coming in Alpine. The two teams did not face each other in the regular-season this year.