April 21, 2007
BILLINGS, Mont. – Jason Anderson’s third hit of the day was the difference as St. Mary’s University rallied to defeat Montana State University-Billings, 6-5, in nine innings and split a Heartland Conference baseball doubleheader Saturday afternoon at Cobb Field.
Anderson (Sr., Lancaster, Calif.) went 3-of-5 with a triple and three runs scored, but it was his final at-bat of the day that lifted the Rattlers. Ryan Femath (Sr., El Paso) singled to lead off and one out later Ray Camacho (Sr., Converse) singled to put a pair of runners on. Jonathon Cisneros (Fr., San Antonio) singled to score Femath with the go-ahead run. Then Anderson came up and smacked a single to center, scoring Camacho to give the Rattlers a two-run edge at 6-4.
The Yellowjackets nearly rallied for the win in the bottom of the inning against Frank Flores (Jr., San Antonio). Flores walked leadoff batter Kyle Pryor, who stole second and moved to third on an error. That allowed Matt Schoonover to bring home Pryor on a sacrifice fly, cutting the Rattler lead to just one at 6-5. Two more batters reached against Flores on a walk and hit batsman, before he settled down and retired the final two to nail down his fourth win of the season.
Michael Pawelek (Sr., San Antonio) hit his sixth homerun of the season in the game. Cisneros had two base hits, while Daniel Soto (Fr., Lytle) had two base hits.
In game one Ben Lewerke won his second game of the season against the Rattlers, and improved to 7-1 overall, holding the Rattlers to just one run on six hits, while walking three and striking out three in the complete game win. Brandon Lippe (Sr., Schertz) fell to 3-2 on the season, allowing three earned runs on seven hits and two walks and four strikeouts. Soto hit his first homerun of the season for the Rattlers lone run in the loss.
St. Mary’s improved to 30-15 overall and 22-10 in Heartland Conference play with the split, while MSUB is now 20-22, 13-15. The Rattlers will return to action on Tuesday when they host 22nd-ranked Angelo State University at 7 p.m. at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium.