Pirates Down 'Roos in Series Opener

SHERMAN, Texas - The Austin College baseball team fell in its Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series opener against Southwestern University on Thursday, with the PIrates topping the 'Roos by a score of 14-5.

The Pirates jumped on top early, taking a 3-0 lead in their first set of at-bats. Austin College got one run back in the bottom of the first, when Tino Ramirez lead off the frame with a home run to cut it to 3-1. That remained the score until the fourth, when Southwestern pushed two more runs across to make it a 5-1 game, but Asher Thompson brought a run home with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth and Ryan Padfield singled to right, plating Ashton Cason in the fifth to trim it to a 5-3 game.

However, Southwestern tacked on four runs in the top of the sixth, highlighted by a three-run homer by Maxwell Mims, and three more runs came across in the eighth to make it it 12-3. Greg Smith singled home a pair of runs for Austin College in the bottom of the eighth, but Southwestern's Stephen Landaz hit a two-run homer in the top of the ninth to make it a 14-5 final. 

Jonas Ceballos took the loss for Austin College after surrendering nine runs on 15 hits in 5.2 innings of work, while Greg Ferguson earned the win for Southwestern after giving up three runs on five hits with eight strikeouts in 6.0 innings. RayShawn Riley was 3-for-5 to lead Austin College offensively, while Mims finished 4-of-6 with three RBI for the Pirates. Austin College and Southwestern will wrap up their series on Friday with a doubleheader beginning at 6:00 p.m.