Scorpions Stung

The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College baseball team didn't give much to No. 19 ranked Texas Wesleyan.

But they gave just enough.
TWU scratched and crawled for three runs against Scorpion pitcher Julian Moya who tossed a complete game on 112 pitches as the Rams snuck by UTB-TSC 3-1 in opening round of the Red River Athletic Conference at Scorpion Field on Tuesday night.

"When people haven't seen (Julian) they don't realize how special he is," Scorpion coach Joel Barta said. "He gave us a chance to win and what more could you ask."

Rams starter Aaron Wimpee (8-0) kept his season record perfect tossing an effective six innings of work with three strikeouts on one earned run while closer Joey Evans captured his fifth save of the year in 1.1 innings of relief.

"My hats off to UTB and their pitcher," TWU coach Mike Jeffcoat said. "He must have had close to 130 pitches but the kid did a great job. We did get some timely hits that allowed us to score three runs. You've got to give credit to my pitching staff as well to hold them down, pitching and defense still win championships."

The Scorpions' loss puts their season in jeopardy in the double-elimination tournament as the team faces RRAC South rival Wiley College at 2:00 p.m. today.

"We've got to forget about (this game) and move on," Moya said. "Now it's one loss and we're done and we don't want that to hap-pen at least not anytime soon."

TWU drew first blood in the top of the third on Brandon Frazier's RBI-single to right field driving home Jerry Fisher for 1-0 lead.

With runners at the corners the Rams added another run as Ben Kliever stole home putting the Scorpions in a 2-0 hole.

In the bottom half of the inning UTB-TSC loaded the bases with one out but Wimpee yielded no damage.

The Rams starter forced a fielders choice to home plate against Schaune Collins then struck out Tyler O'Neal to get out of the jam.

"(That hurt) definitely," Barta said. "Bags loaded and you're in the meat of your lineup, you're where you want to be. We can't complain we had the right people and their guy made the pitches that he needed to make."

The Scorpions cut the lead at 2-1 in the fourth when shortstop Igancio Celedon smahsed a triple past Fraizer in centerfield who scored in the next at bat on Andres Monterrubio's RBI-groundout.

TWU answered in the next inning with another run and held the Scorpions in check until the seventh.

With twos out UTB-TSC's Ryan MacDonald crushed a single to right as coach Barta waived home pinch runner Jorge DeJesus who was thrown out in a close play at home to end the inning.

The seventh would be the last time the Scorpions would threaten in the game and now the Rams move on against Huston-Tillotson University at 6:00 p.m. today.

HTU fell to Northwood University in the morning game yesterday 14-7 because of an explosive eight-run fourth inning and five-run seventh as the Knights cruised.

Bacone College also put up two crooked numbers on the scoreboard with four runs in the fourth and a six in the eighth in its 11-3 blowout over Wiley College.