April 28, 2007
San Antonio – Brandon Lippe and Caleb Staudt held Oklahoma Panhandle State University without an earned run, while the St. Mary’s University bats pounded out 14 runs as the Rattlers completed a four-game sweep of the Aggies, 4-1, 10-0, in Heartland Conference baseball action Saturday afternoon at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium.
Lippe (Sr., Schertz) tossed his third complete game in his last four starts, allowing just one unearned run on five hits and two walks, while striking out eight to improve to 4-2. He now has a team-best 2.73 ERA this season. The Aggies scored their first run of the series, with the help of an error in the first inning, but Lippe settled down and limited them to just three hits over the final six innings for the win.
Offensively the Rattlers tied things at 1-1 on a Jonathon Cisneros (Fr., San Antonio) single in the third inning that scored Ray Camacho (Sr., Converse). Then in the sixth inning they took control. Cisneros walked to lead off and Jason Anderson (Sr., Lancaster, Calif.) followed with a walk. The runners moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt. OPSU then chose to intentionally walk Michael Pawelek (Sr., San Antonio) to load the bases. The brought up Jason Davilla (Sr., Boerne), who smacked a double to left-center, scoring all three runners.
In the second game of the doubleheader Caleb Staudt (Sr., Leander) had his best outing since returning from an early season injury, limiting the Aggies to just five hits and one walk, while striking out five in five innings of work. Frank Flores (Jr., San Antonio) put the finishing touches on the win, allowing just two hits over the final two innings to complete the shutout.
For the second time in the series the Rattlers scored 10 runs in a game against the Aggies. Michael Brzezinski and Camacho each drove in three runs to lead the way, while Danny Cantu (So., Laredo), Daniel Soto (Fr., Lytle) and Ryan Femath (Sr., El Paso) each had two hits in the game.
The Rattlers outscored the Aggies 26-1 in the four-game series and completed an eight-game sweep of the Aggies for the season. OPSU did not score an earned run in the four-game series.
With the wins the Rattlers improved to 34-16 overall and 26-10 in the Heartland Conference. OPSU fell to 6-35, 3-29. St. Mary’s remains alive for the HC title, but are three games back of league-leading St. Edward’s heading into the final weekend of play. The Rattlers will travel to Jefferson City, Mo., to face Lincoln University in a four-game series, beginning on Friday, May 4 at noon.