FORT WORTH - In a season of tremendous comebacks, brilliant pitching and smashing doubles and homers over the Sycamore Park fence, the No. 15 Texas Wesleyan Rams (37-9) welcomed in the No. 11 LSU-Shreveport Pilots (37-9) to Fort Worth and LSU-Shreveport channeled their inner Ram, coming back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat TXWES 12-3.

Two of the best teams in the region clashed for a third time this season and could meet for a critical fourth time in May, depending upon how the next few weeks all shake out down the stretch.

Monday's conditions were extremely blustery and for most of the day a heated air blew from the south. It gave left fielders an easy day and for the first half of the game made things a little harder on the batters, who received wind in their face while pitchers worked with the wind at their back. Josh Brown got the start for Texas Wesleyan, striking out two in five innings while allowing just four hits. One run scored during Brown's time on the mound - an unearned run with two outs in the top of the third on a RBI single up the middle.

Two of the Rams' first three runs of the day were unearned too, as TXWES quickly struck back in the bottom of the third. After Tanner Amaral was walked and Josh Davis stole second (in to run for Amaral), Brayden Bahnsen's double to left field tied the game. After Caden Williams took a walk - an error by the shortstop on a dangerous infield hop - the Rams loaded the bases. That's when Jeddediah Fagg stepped up to smack a single through the right side to score two. It was Fagg's third-straight game - and five of his last six - with a RBI.

After the Rams took the 3-1 lead - and held the advantage until the top of the sixth, it felt like the Rams had finally captured the lightning in a bottle to trip up the Pilots. Then Ricky Perez happened. Perez batted ninth in the Pilots order and hadn't had a multi-hit game all season. Perez went 4-for-5 with as many home runs (1) and RBI (5) he's produced the entire season. Four of those RBI came in the eighth - on two separate at-bats - the homer to right field and on a single through the right side. Perez earned four hits against three different pitchers.

The Rams' two lowest ERA pitchers this season (minimum 20 innings) - Jesse Ramirez and Parker Robinson - couldn't touch the Pilots as Ramirez took his first loss of the season (6-1). The numbers read like a typo. Coming into the game, the two allowed 34 hits in 75.2 innings. They allowed five combined hits in two innings against LSUS batters, who racked up 13 hits in the game. The Rams threw seven different pitchers without much luck, although Tres Underwood did provide some relief in the ninth when he struck out two of the three Pilots he faced.

The defense behind the pitching mitigated a lot of the potential damage, helping to strand 13 different LSUS baserunners including a runner on third in the fourth, fifth, sixth and ninth frames. The Rams turned four double plays including one in each of the first three innings, just one off tying the season record in the NAIA.

WHAT'S NEXT
The Rams welcome the No. 9 University of Science and Arts-Oklahoma Drovers to Sycamore Park for a three game series starting Friday afternoon. It's the second-to-last regular season series of 2019 plus a make-up game against MACU on April 23.

SAC NEWS
Bacone announced Monday that it would not be returning to the Sooner Athletic Conference next season, electing to go independent according to the Muskogee Phoenix, with the Athletic Director of Bacone sighting financial and competitive challenges with remaining in the SAC. Bacone's record in the conference during the 2018-2019 season across the sports it continued to participate in (baseball, softball, men's soccer and men's and women's basketball) is 1-97.