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It was a year of surprises for the Javelina Baseball team as they were not expected to do much in the Lone Star Conference. They were picked ninth in the annual preseason poll, but spent the entire year proving their doubters wrong. The season began with three games against nearby non-conference rivals UH-Victoria and Incarnate Word. The Javelinas easily swept the two games at home against the Jaguars winning 8-2 and 10-0. Then, they traveled to San Antonio and knocked off the #20 Cardinals, 6-4. The Javelinas received two wins from starters Dan Rogers and David de Leon who would prove to be the team’s top two men on the year. Freshman Taylor Taska pitched 4.0 innings of relief on the week allowing just three hits and two walks en route to being the Diamond LSC Pitcher of the Week. He picked up the save against Incarnate Word after tossing three shutout innings to close out the game. The LSC regular season began on February 12 at home against Southwestern Oklahoma. The Hoggies and Bulldogs split the four game series. The Bulldogs took the series opener, 12-11 in 11 innings. The next weekend saw #10 Abilene Christian come to town and the Hoggies for fortunate to get one win as Rogers pitched a gem in the final game of the weekend. The Hoggies closed the month of February with a four-game series at Central Oklahoma. They won the first two games, but dropped the final two to fall to 5-7 in the conference and 9-7 overall. The Javelinas got a treat at the beginning of March when they played Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at Whataburger Field, the home of the Houston Astros’ AA affiliate Corpus Christi Hooks. They lost to the NCAA Division I opponent 11-6. The rest of the month saw some excellent performances from both Rogers and centerfielder Clifton Thomas. Thomas was named the Diamond LSC Hitter of the Week on March 10. After driving in one run and scoring another in the series opener against Eastern New Mexico he caught fire. He went 3-for-6 in Game 2 with three runs and two RBI’s. He missed hitting for the cycle by a single. In the third game he went 3-for-4 with two doubles, a triple, two runs and two RBI’s. He finished the series with a 2-for-5 performance that included two runs, an RBI and a triple. He finished the week with three doubles, three triples and a home run. Rogers closed out the Javelinas’ series with Northeastern State with a dominating performance to earn Pitcher of the Week honors. He earned the complete game victory after scattering six hits over seven innings. He allowed just one run and two walks while striking out five to improve to 4-1 on the season. The Hoggies pushed their conference mark above .500 during March as they went 10-6 to improve to 15-13 on the season in LSC action. After a tough series against Cameron at the beginning of April in which they dropped 3-of-4, the Javelinas closed out the regular season in style going 8-2 in LSC play. The Javelinas won 3-of-4 against Southeastern Oklahoma and had two players earn LSC honors during the week. De Leon shut down the Savage Storm in a 3-1 win. After allowing a lead-off triple and then a run within the first two batters of the game, he allowed just two hits and two walks the rest of the way to pick up his seventh win of the season. Junior second baseman Jerry Rodriguez was named the Hitter of the Week. After missing two and a half weeks due to injury, he hit a pinch-hit, two-run double with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning to win Game 1 for the team. In the second game, Rodriguez found himself in the lineup for the first time since March 21 and went 2-for-4 with two RBI’s, a run and a double. He scored the first run of the game and then drove in two runs in the second inning of an 11-3 win. In the third game, the junior reached base and scored in each of his first three at bats. He went 2-for-3 with three runs, a stolen base and two walks in the 12-4 win. In the final game of the series, he was one of the few offensive bright spots in a 13-5 loss with a 3-for-3 effort including three runs, an RBI, double, hit by pitch and a walk. For the week he hit .727 and reached base safely 13-of-16 times. Clifton Thomas provided some more fireworks for the team on April 16 when he hit for the cycle at East Central. He went 4-for-5 with four runs and two RBI’s in the 7-inning game. In the doubleheader, her went 7-for-11 with six extra base hits and six runs in the sweep. The Javelinas closed out the regular season by taking 3-of-4 games at Angelo State to secure the #4 seed in the Lone Star Conference Tournament. In the tournament the Javelinas went two games and out, but it did little to take the luster off the season. They finished the year 28-25 overall, a nine game improvement over the 2008 season. Leaders (New Records in Bold) Batting Average – Clifton Thomas, .388 Slugging Percentage – Clifton Thomas, .703 On Base Percentage – Cody Stigall, .482 Runs – Clifton Thomas, 63 Hits – Clifton Thomas, 85 RBI’s – Travis Earles, 49 Doubles – Clifton Thomas, 21 Triples – Clifton Thomas, 9 Home Runs – Clifton Thomas, 10 Total Bases – Clifton Thomas, 154 Walks – Travis Earles, 32 Hit by Pitch – Cody Stigall, 17 Sacrifice bunts – Rich Arroyo, 5 Sacrifice flies – Travis Earles, 8 Stolen Bases – Clifton Thomas, 27 At Bats – Clifton Thomas, 219 Earned Run Average – Dan Rogers, 3.93 Opp Batting Average – Clint Brown, .241 Won-Loss Percentage – Dan Rogers, .889 Wins – Dan Rogers, David de Leon, 8 Losses – Robert Cox, 5 Saves – Taylor Taska, 9 Innings – Dan Rogers, 87.0 Strike outs – Dan Rogers, 63 Appearances – Taylor Taska, 26 Starts – Dan Rogers, 13 Fielding Percentage – Cash Barker, .986 Put Outs – Travis Earles, 281 Assists – Cody Stigall, 97 Errors – Cody Stigall, 17 Awards Lone Star Conference Dan Rogers – First Team Pitcher Clifton Thomas – First Team Outfield Travis Earles – First Team Utility David de Leon – Second Team Pitcher Other Clifton Thomas – LSC All-Tournament Team, Second Team Daktronics All-South Central Region, Second Team Rawlings/ABCA All-South Central Region, Second Team NCBWA All-South Central Region Travis Earles – Second Team Daktronics All-South Central Region Dan Rogers – Second Team NCBWA All-South Central Region |
