March 22, 2008
San Antonio – Tyler Cales tossed seven strong innings on the mound and David Vaio led the offense as 24th-ranked St. Mary’s University defeated Texas A&M International University 8-3 to sweep three-game Heartland Conference baseball series Saturday afternoon at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium.
Cales (Jr., San Antonio) allowed three runs on seven hits and four walks, while striking out four to improve to 3-0 this season. Ben Odom (So., Richmond) came on in relief and tossed two scoreless innings to wrap up the win.
Early on Dustdevil starting pitcher Angel Encinas held the Rattlers in check at the bat, but struggled with his control and gave the Rattlers the lead. In the second inning Encinas walked four and hit one to allow the Rattlers to score two runs without the benefit of a hit. In the fourth inning Encinas again struggled with his control, and the Rattlers took advantage scoring two more runs on just one hit and three walks to take a 4-2 lead.
The Rattlers started to stretch their lead in the fifth with two more runs on an RBI double by Vaio (Jr., San Antonio) and an RBI single by Ryan Morrow (Fr., Bulverde), which gave the Rattlers a 6-3 lead. In the sixth inning Reagan Moczygemba (Fr., Bulverde) led off with a triple and came home on an RBI single by Jonathon Cisneros (So., San Antonio). Danny Cantu (Jr., Laredo) then came up and brought Cisneros with a double off the wall in right-center field for an 8-3 Rattler lead.
With the win the Rattlers swept the three-game series from the Dustdevils and improved to 21-7 overall, 18-4 in Heartland Conference play. TAMIU fell to 10-20, 9-16. St. Mary’s has now won 12 of their last 14 games. The Rattlers will return to action next Friday when they travel to Goodwell, Okla., to face Oklahoma Panhandle State University in a four-game Heartland Conference baseball series.