LONGVIEW, Texas-- The LeTourneau baseball team opened the 2024 campaign with a pair of losses at home as they hosted Millsaps on Friday at Conrad-Vernon Field. LeTourneau dropped the opener, 8-7, before falling in the matinee, 17-8.
Ben Jones and Xander Nabors both had multi-homer games for LeTourneau (0-2).Â
Dane Jones tied the NCAA DIII era program record for career homers with his one-run blast in the 7th inning of game two, totaling 22 for his career.
Across the way, Bradley Pelle hit a cycle on the day with a triple and a single in game one, and a homer and a double in game two for Millsaps (2-0).
GAME ONE: Millsaps 8, LeTourneau 7
LeTourneau threatened early with two outs in the first. Carter Amarantos hit one to left-center field to mark the first hit for the YellowJackets.Â
Xander Nabors followed suit in a hit just by the shortstop to find himself at first base. Hayden Norris then was walked, but LeTourneau grounded out to end the inning.
A pair of runs in the second inning and six more tacked on in the fourth inning gave Millsaps an 8-0 lead through four.Â
Wil Wood (1-0) started and got the win for the Majors and pitched a scoreless four innings with three hits and four strikeouts.
Amarantos got things going for the YellowJackets in the bottom of the sixth inning with a hit to center field. Nabors made his way to second off his single up the middle leaving runners at second and third for Norris to make his way to the plate.
Norris connected on the first pitch allowing Amarantos to score and leave runners on the corners for Dylan Carrell. Carrell got on base with a walk to load up the bags in a late-game one-out rally attempt.
Ben Jones then earned an RBI taking a pitch to the midsection, scoring Nabors, and leaving the bases juiced for Blake Vice. Vice also was hit by the pitch to score another run. Ethan Wood hit a sacrifice fly out to right field to score the fourth run.Â
Dane Jones drew a walk to tally an RBI and Vice scored just after on a wild pitch to make it 8-6 in favor of the Majors, the score would hold there to the end of the inning.
LeTourneau recorded three quick outs by the arm of TJ Spitdowski in the top of the seventh.
Norris led off the final inning with a full-count walk to allow the tying run to the plate. Ben Jones put one in play and reached on an error keeping the inning alive with one out.Â
In a failed pickoff attempt, Norris advanced home bringing the deficit to one.
LeTourneau then hit a couple more into the air and were not fortunate enough to see them land ending the first game 8-7.
Aman Patel (0-1) started on the bump for the YellowJackets. Patel allowed three earned runs and four hits through three innings pitched.
Dylan Cortes relieved Patel as he allowed two hits and three earned runs with a strikeout and a groundout. Camden Miller took over to finish the fourth inning as he tallied a strikeout as he pitched 2.1 innings allowing three hits.
GAME TWO: Millsaps 17, LeTourneau 8
LeTourneau battled back and forth with the Majors.
Millsaps took an opening frame 2-0 lead as Pelle homered.
In the bottom of the second Ben Jones sent a two-run bomb out to left field to tie it up.
Millsaps took a 3-2 lead off a double from Evan Scott in the top of the third.
Nabors answered with a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth. Ben Jones kept it running with a second two-run homer to give the YellowJackets a 5-3 lead.Â
Nabors continued adding to the stat sheet in the fifth with a triple to left-center scoring Zach Zarko to break the tie and make it 6-5 in favor of the hosts.
Millsaps put up five runs in the top of the sixth inning.Â
In the seventh inning, Dane Jones took the first pitch and sent it over the fence and off the field house in toward left-center.Â
Nabors hit another home run in the eighth inning to make it five for the YellowJackets.
Dalton Pickett got the start for LeTourneau. Pickett pitched 4.1 innings, allowed nine hits, five earned runs, and struck three batters out.
Riley Davis got the loss with his 0.2 innings of work. He allowed 4 earned runs and four hits. Zac Schneider relieved him and went 3.0 innings allowing a hit, an earned run, and tallied three strikeouts. Clayton Holt finished it off with a pair of strikeouts and a couple of earned runs allowed.
Will Norris (1-0) got the win for the Majors. Norris allowed three earned runs, three hits, and marked three strikeouts.
UP NEXT
LeTourneau and Millsaps conclude the series on Saturday with game time to be determined later.
FOLLOW THE YELLOWJACKETS
Be sure to follow LeTourneau athletics all season long on letuathletics.com and on social media at Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram for up-to-date scores, news, and other information.
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