MARSHALL, Texas – LETU had its ups and downs during the season but nothing compared to Friday at Woods Field.
After clinching a berth in the American Southwest Conference Baseball Tournament on the last day of the regular season, the YellowJackets appeared poised to pull off a first-round upset. Through five and a half innings, they held a 2-0 lead over regular-season champions and top seeded ETBU.
Kyle Maysonave gave his side the advantage with a pair of RBI knocks, while
Raul Martinez shut down one of the top offenses in the league.
Maysonave and
Hunter Miller recorded two hits each, accumulating four of the YellowJackets seven hits. The duo had a double each.
Cameron Pfafman,
Weston McKinley and
Devin Greaff notched a base knock each.
Martinez dropped to 3-5, saddled with eight runs on eight hits, three walks and striking out four. Spitdowski relieved Martinez, tossing 0.2 innings, surrendering two runs, one walk and one hit.
Cade Smitherman allowed two runs on five hits in 1.1 innings. The home run in the six, snapped a 14.2 inning scoreless streak for Martinez, spanning four outings. He last allowed a run at ETBU on April 9.
Maysonave put LETU in front with a two-out single in the first, plating Jones Hunter. Back-to-back doubles with two outs by Miller and Maysonave nudged the margin out to 2-0.
Unable to gain any moment, ETBU had no answer for Martinez, managing four hits and three walks through five innings. They awakened with a hit batsman and a home run knotting the score at 2-2 and when the dust settled the Tigers owned a 10-2 margin. They tallied 10 runs on eight hits in the frame. ETBU capped of the contest with two in the eighth, earning the run-rule victory.
The Tigers take on UMHB Saturday at 3 p.m., after the Cru defeated McMurry 11-7 in the first game of the Blue Bracket.
LETU and the War Hawks kickoff Saturday's action in an elimination game at 11 a.m. The winner closes out the day with another elimination clash with the loser between ETBU and UMHB.
