March 20, 2009
San Antonio – Braxton Watson and Scott Shimek shined on the mound, giving the St. Mary’s University offense a chance to rally in back-to-back games as the Rattlers swept a pair of games against Texas A&M-International University, 3-2, 2-1, in Heartland Conference baseball action Friday afternoon at V.J. Keefe Memorial Stadium.
Braxton Watson (Sr., Spring) was dominant in the first game of the day, allowing just one hit in a complete game effort. The Dustdevils took an early 1-0 lead on a pair of errors to score a run with out a hit. After that, Watson shut down TAMIU, retiring the next 13 batters in a row. Jose Sanchez Jr. finally broke up the no-hitter in the sixth with a line drive single to right field. Another Rattler error allowed the next batter to reach and Sanchez scored on a ground out to tie the game at 2-2. That set up a dramatic finish to the game.
With one out Jonathon Cisneros (Jr., San Antonio) singled up the middle. Weston Baros (So., San Antonio) walked to put two runners on with one out. Colin Stock (So., Klamath Falls, Ore.) grounded out to put runners at second and third with two outs. Danny Cantu (Sr., Laredo) was intentionally walked to load the bases. That brought up Ryan Morrow (So., Bulverde) then won the game with a single to right, scoring Cisneros. Watson improved to 3-2 with the win.
In the second game Shimek (Sr., Shiner) was just as dominant on the mound, but was on the wrong end of a 1-0 score until the sixth inning. Cantu singled to lead off the sixth and moved to second on a sacrifice by Cisneros. David Vaio (Sr., San Antonio) reached on an error to score Cantu, tying the game at 1-1. Stock singled and pinch runner Billy Richard (Fr., Schertz) advanced to third. That brought up Ricky Gonazlez (Sr., Houston), who hit a sacrifice fly, giving the Rattlers the lead.
From there Shimek shut down the Dustdevils in the seventh to improve to 6-1 this season. He allowed just one run on four hits and one walk, while striking out three.
In the doubleheader Gonzalez went a combined 3-of-6 with an RBI and run scored and made several strong defensive plays. Stock also went 3-of-6 with a double and RBI.
With the sweep, the Rattlers improved to 19-10 overall and 16-8 in Heartland Conference play. TAMIU fell to 10-15, 9-12, with the losses.