CANYON, Texas – A stolen base attempt by senior Austin Ingraham (Fort Worth, Texas) in the bottom of the 10th inning of a tie game was followed by a pair of throwing errors, allowing Ingraham to come all the way around to score the game-winning run in a 2-1 Texas A&M-Kingsville victory over West Texas A&M in an elimination game in the Division II South Central Regionals on Saturday at Wilder Park in Canyon, Texas.
This victory puts the Javelinas (39-15) into a rematch with Colorado School of Mines at 7 p.m. on Saturday for the right to play on the final day of regional play on Sunday.
Ingraham reached with two outs in the tenth by driving a single through the middle. On the first pitch of the next at-bat, the Fort Worth, Texas, native took off for second. When the throw from catcher Brandon Marrero sailed into the outfield, Ingraham immediately got up and sprinted to third.
Center fielder Bodie Bryan tried to throw Ingraham out at third, but his toss sailed over the head of third baseman Darius Carter, allowing Ingraham to score and the Javelinas to walk-off. Senior Seth Hubert (Riviera, Texas) (4-2) picked up the win for TAMUK with a scoreless top of the tenth.
The game opened with zeroes in the first two frames before TAMUK broke through in the third against the Buffs' (40-14) starter Ryan Larison. With one out, redshirt-sophomore Kohl Ullman (Houston, Texas) singled and junior Manny Loredo (McAllen, Texas) drew a walk to bring up senior Levi Zents (Fort Worth, Texas). TAMUK's third baseman sliced a double into the right field corner, bringing in Ullman for a 1-0 lead.
That edge would prove to be short-lived, however. A lead-off single by Jimmy Cubillos was followed two batters later by an error by freshamn starter Tyler Flores (San Antonio, Texas) and when Tag Baxter was hit by a pitch, WT had the bases loaded with one out. Brandon Marrero lifted a sacrifice fly into left that evened the score.
Neither starter budged an inch after that. Flores set a season-high by throwing nine innings and permitting just two hits. He also walked just one and struck out 12, tying a season-high that he set against Angelo State earlier in the year.
Larison (6-3) matched Flores pitch-for-pitch in keeping the game tied. He pitched into the 10th, at one point retiring 18 of 19. He began the 10th by sitting down the first two batters before Ingraham singled and proceeded to wreak havoc on the bases.
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