Twice as nice

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost college baseball team has something brewing.

And that's a winning streak.

UTB-TSC grabbed its third straight win in dramatic fashion with back-to-back RBI squeeze bunts in the final frame of a double-header sweep completing the comeback over Paul Quinn College as the Scorpions won 4-1 and 9-8 on Thursday night.

Down 8-7 in the bottom of the seventh Scorpion outfielder Ryan MacDonald dropped down a bunt as pinch runner Alexis DeJesus slid home under the tag of catcher David Tomlinson to tie the game with no outs.

The bunt moved Walter Blume to third and after one pitch Scorpion coach Joel Barta signaled another squeeze bunt.

Once again UTB-TSC delivered as Jorge Camorlinga layed down a flawless bunt allowing Blume to slide in for the winning run.

"It's fun," Barta said. "I love close games because it forces you to stay engaged the whole time. This is where we can find out if we can get through tough situations. Whether we can pitch out of it and execute in those kind of situations so from that stand point this was very gratifying."

The Scorpions had the long ball going as well blasting a pair of two-run homers in the game by Andres Monterrubio and Gilbert Puentes. The second homer came in the bottom of the fifth as Puentes crushed a shot over the Scorpion Logo to give them a 7-3 lead.

"It certainly helped," Barta said. "You don't have to get two hits to get a run on the board. It changes an inning especially when your approach is ‘hey we have to score each inning'. You get a couple of homers and you're able to relax a little more."

Unfortunately that comfortable lead vanished in the top of the six when Tigers designated hitter Jamerson Lewis launched his second home run of the game cutting the lead to 7-6.

PQC tacked on two more runs in the seventh to take the lead before relief pitcher Brian Dombeck stopped the bleeding and gave the Scorpions a chance in the last inning.

In the first game UTB-TSC starting pitcher Antonio Lerma was dominate tossing a complete game giving up only one run (un-earned) on five hits in seven innings of work.

Camorlinga also brought home the final run in game one as well hitting a deep fly sacrifice to center that let Blume trot in the 4-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth.

Tigers coach Donald Cofer Sr. refused to comment.