MONTGOMERY, AL: The 21st ranked Texas Wesleyan University baseball team (39-19) suffered an 8-4 loss against Texas A&M-Texarkana (32-19) in an elimination game at the NAIA National Championship Opening Round – Faulkner Bracket on Wednesday.
The Game
The Rams jumped ahead 4-0 after batting around in the first inning. A one-out error brought
Blake Seaton home with the game's first run. That left the door open for an RBI groundout from
Alex Gudac and a two-out, two-run double from
Jonathan Bravo.
After surrendering the four in the first, A&M-Texarkana's Teddy Henderson was unstoppable. The junior from West Monroe, LA, put up eight consecutive scoreless innings while the Eagles rallied for the win.
An RBI single from Darren Alexander got the Eagles on the board in the second. The Rams threatened to blow the game open in the fifth when they loaded the bases with one out, but the Eagles got the second out at the plate and Henderson got out of the inning with a fly out.
A&M-Texarkana added an RBI double from Cole Beckham in the fifth, but the real damage came in the sixth and seventh innings.
Texarkana got an RBI single from Alexander in the sixth and then loaded the bases with one out.
Mike Jeffcoat called on
Alex Lopez out of the bullpen and Lopez induced a groundball to short, but Kyle Perfect just beat the relay to first avoiding an inning-ending double-play and tying the game at 4-4.
Things got away from the Rams in the seventh. After the inning started with a walk and a hit-batter, Cade Thomason launched a three-run homer that proved to be the difference in the game. Perfect added an RBI single later in the inning to cap the scoring at 8-4.
Henderson (7-2) needed 115 pitches to toss the complete game. He allowed four unearned runs on seven hits while striking out four and walking three.
Alex Lopez (4-1) took the loss after allowing four runs on two hits and three walks in 1.2 innings.
Both teams collected seven hits in the game, but Texarkana benefitted from six walks and five hit batters.
Casey Moses was 2-for-5 in the loss.
The Season
After a 9-11 start, Texas Wesleyan put together a tremendous season. They went 30-8 to finish the campaign at 39-19 overall. A 17-game winning streak vaulted the team to the top of the Sooner Athletic Conference standings. At 19-5 in league play they won the SAC Regular Season Championship for the first time in three years of membership.
Seven players were named All-Conference and three received SAC Gold Glove awards, while
Mike Jeffcoat was named SAC Coach of the Year.
The team featured nine seniors in
Ryan Adam,
Zach Aitken,
Jonathan Bravo,
Jake Davis,
Matt Hexter,
Ricky Hull,
Erick Quesada,
Avery Sullivan, and
Dusteyn Suttle. The Rams were nationally ranked in each of the final four NAIA Coaches' Polls, reaching as high as 20th.
The Future
The future is bright for this team. Although they lose nine seniors, the roster also featured 13 juniors. Four all-conference selections (
Garrett Crook,
Alex Gudac,
Casey Moses, and
Stephen Yancey) will return next season along with
James Ziegler who won a gold glove at first base.
The lineup featured six players who batted over .300. Four of them will be back next season including
Casey Moses who finished at a team-high .372 with 2 HR's and 36 RBI.
Alex Gudac will also return after batting .348 with a school record 8 triples (he is 8 triples shy of the school's career record of 16).
On the mound, the Rams will return an All-Conference starter in
Stephen Yancey (8-1, 3.51 ERA) as well as
Alex Lopez who's ERA finished up at 1.91 in spite of the four runs allowed on Wednesday.
Wade Regas (7-5, 2.51 ERA, 6 SVs) and
Ryan Chen (4-2, 4.46 ERA) also headline a very strong returning stable of pitchers.
Ramblings
- A&M-Texarkana had been outscored 57-13 in the 7th inning coming into Wednesday's game.
- This was Texas Wesleyan's first ever meeting with the Eagles.
- The Rams are 81-84 all-time in postseason play and 8-8 all-time in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.
