Scorpions drop doubleheader

Lubbock Christian hit five home runs to defeat the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College 18-4 in five innings Saturday at Scorpion Field in the first game of a doubleheader, then completed a sweep with an 8-0 win in the second game.

The two teams meet in the final game of the four-game series at 1 p.m. today at Scorpion Field.

Scorpions coach Bryan Aughney was confident his team can play tougher in the final game of the series.

"It's baseball. Anybody can beat anybody else on any given day," Aughney said. "We just got to come out and compete, and to give ourselves the opportunity to get a ‘W'. And it starts with competing. If you compete for nine innings, every pitch, good things happen."

On Saturday the Chaparrals scored five runs in the second inning and blew the first game open with a 10-run third, sending 14 batters to the plate.

Tyler Johnson had two home runs, a two-run shot in the second inning and a three-run blast in the third. Arnold Dominguez also had a three-run homer in the second, and Rob Learned and Will Stramp added solo blasts.

UTB-TSC pitcher Danny Gidora went 2 1/3 innings, giving up nine earned runs on seven hits and four walks, striking out two.

Scott Price had a two-run homer for the Scorpions, driving in Peter Maldonado, who had walked.

UTB-TSC collected five hits, two by Jacob Yousif, who drove in one run with a triple in the final inning.

In the second game, the Scorpions had only three hits but left 10 runners on base, including four in the first two innings.

"It affected it us big time. If we have guys on second base, we've got to cash them in," Aughney said. "We had guys on base early and just flat out didn't get the job done. If we would've done it early we could have had a 4-0 lead, and who knows what could've happened. It's a totally different ballgame."

Scorpion starter Tony Lerma and reliever Robert Mariscal pitched well for the Scorpions, allowing a combined six hits.

"Tony threw well," Aughney said. "Typical Tony, he's not going to wow anybody with velocity, but he's going to keep guys off balance, and he elevated a couple pitches against a good team like Lubbock."

Lerma struck out five in five innings of work, allowing only three hits.