February 19, 2008
San Antonio – Ben Odom tossed seven strong innings, while Michael Brzezinski had four hits as 21st-ranked St. Mary’s University ran out to a big lead, and then held off a late Abilene Christian University rally for a 9-8 win in non-conference baseball action Tuesday afternoon at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium.
Odom (Jr., Richmond, Texas) allowed just one run on five hits and five walks, while striking out two over seven innings of work. He improved to 2-0 with the win. Frank Flores (Sr. San Antonio) picked up the last two outs of the game to record his third save of the season.
The Rattlers took an early lead as Brzezinski (Jr., Helotes) smacked a two-run single that scored Danny Cantu (Jr., Laredo) and Jonathon Rosfeld (Fr., San Antonio), giving the Rattlers a 2-0 lead in the first inning. An inning later Weston Baros (Fr., San Antonio) hit his first homerun as a Rattler to extend the lead to 3-0. St. Mary’s broke the game open in the fourth inning, scoring five runs and sending 10 men to the plate. Jonathon Cisneros (So., San Antonio) hit a two-run double, while Rosfeld and Ryan Morrow (Fr., Bulverde) had run-scoring hits.
The Rattlers held a 9-1 lead entering the ninth inning before nearly losing it. St. Mary’s committed four errors in the ninth inning, leading to six unearned runs. The Wildcats had the tying and winning runs on base when Matt Spotanski grounded out against Flores to end the game.
Brzezinski had a season-high four hits in four at-bats, including a double, to drive in two runs and then scored two more. Rosfeld went 3-of-5 with a double, RBI and two runs scored. Cisneros and Baros added two hits each.
With the win the Rattlers improved to 9-1 overall and have won nine straight games. ACU fell to 4-6 and saw its three-game win streak end. St. Mary’s will return to action on Friday when they host St. Edward’s University in a Heartland Conference doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.