Austin College Takes One of Two From St. Thomas

SHERMAN, Texas - After dropping Saturday's doubleheader opener 22-12 to visiting St. Thomas, the Austin College baseball team bounced back with a 9-7 victory to close out the weekend series and improve to 6-14 overall and 5-10 in Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference play.

The Celts jumped out to an early 6-0 lead in the top of the first on the strength of a pair of three-run homers, and two more runs came across in the second to make it 8-0. Austin College got on the board in the bottom half of the inning when Mason Woodhouse singled to center, plating Easton Clark, but St. Thomas got four runs in the third and seven in the fourth to go on top 19-1. The Celts belted three home runs in their big fourth inning.

RayShawn Riley blasted a homer of his own in the bottom of the inning to make it 19-2, but UST got that run back in the fifth to make it a 20-2 game. Austin College came alive at the plate in the fifth, pushing five runs across to make it a 20-7 game as Riley brought home a run with a sacrifice fly and Jack Wilhelm drove in two more with a single to left, and Maddox Prentice plated another with a base hit. Isaac Villa knocked in the last run of the inning, singling to right to score Scott Hosmer. Austin College got four more runs in the sixth to cut it to a 20-11 game, as Jayden Ayala-Hinojosa doubled home a run, Riley added an RBI single, and Hosmer knocked in one more, but UST got a two-run homer in the top of the seventh to make it a 22-11 game. Woodhouse had a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh to make it 22-11, and that's how things would end via the run-rule. 

Jonas CeBallos absorbed the loss, giving up six runs on five hits in 0.1 innings, and Ayala-Hinojosa was 3-for-5, Woodhouse was 3-for-4, and Riley was 2-for-4 with three RBI. Dillon McKee was 6-for-6 with two home runs and seven RBI to lead the Celts, while AJ Gonzales was 3-for-5 with two home runs and five RBI.

Game two saw St. Thomas take a 1-0 lead in the opening frame as Tyler Mills came home on a double-steal, and that was the score until the third, when the 'Roos erupted for five runs to grab a 5-1 lead. Villa singled to plate Woodhouse for the first run, and Tino Ramirez knocked in another before Ayala-Hinojosa blasted a three-run homer, the first of his young Austin College career. 

Ashton Cason made the score 6-1 in the fourth with an RBI single, and the Celts responded with two runs in the top of the sixth to cut it to 6-3. Cason added another RBI base hit in the sixth and Ramirez doubled home a pair of runs to push the margin to 9-3, and that's how things stood heading into the ninth. The Celts got four runs in the top of the frame to cut it to 9-7 and had the tying run at the plate, but Zach Andrews closed the door to help preserve the victory for Austin College.

Blake Goodridge got his third victory of the year after giving up three runs on six hits in 5.2 innings of work and Cason was 2-for-3 with two RBI, while Ramirez and Ayala-Hinojosa both drove in three runs. Alex Trinh was 3-for-4 to lead St. Thomas at the plate.