Scorps Break out

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College baseball team might have some bruises but they'll trade the pain for a win.

Ten times the Scorpions (5-20) were hit by a pitch with many turning into runs including four in an eight-run first inning as UTB-TSC stung the Paul Quinn Tigers 16-2 in Game one of a four-game set at Scorpion Field on Wednesday night.

Starting pitcher Julian Moya once again tossed a solid performance giving up two runs (one earned) on four hits with six strike-outs in seven innings of work.

In Moya's last 22 innings he has let only four earned runs cross the plate with a 1.63 ERA.

"He gave us a great effort as he always does," Scorpions coach Joel Barta said. "We're able to keep his pitch count down and hop-ing he could have got out of there with 85 pitches but he was able to leave with 95 pitches so we were able to keep him on rest."

Tiger's starter Culbert had more than a rough time finding the strike zone and with the bases loaded plunked four consecutive Scorpions for a smarting 5-0 lead with no outs.

Lorenzo Ramirez and Ryan MacDonald hit back-to-back sacrifice RBI's to up the advantage to 7-0. Ramirez added the final run off the inning on a passed ball for a commanding Scorpion lead.

Evans was eventually pulled out of the game in the second after hitting Brian Dombeck who was beaned three times. The Tiger starter went gave up nine runs (six earned) on two hits and two walks.

"It was just (a) bland inning, we were flat," Paul Quinn coach Donald Cofer, Sr. said." I don't know if it was the travel or if we're just a flat team right now. We're not a very good baseball team right now. We'll have a better showing (today); in fact I can count on it. These guys are very skilled but we can't seem to get by the mental part of the game."

After putting up a snowman in the first the Scorpion bats continued to capitalize on Tiger errors and were selective at the plate.

The team put up crooked numbers in the third, fourth and fifth inning that kept the pressure on PQU. Andres Monterrubio and MacDonald both went 2-for-2 from the plate combining for three RBI's and three runs.

"It's amazing how different a hitter is when he's comfortable," Barta said. "It's a good way to put it as far as being patiently-aggressive regardless of who's on the mound its something we try to achieve and we did a good job of that."