UTB-TSC News: Scorpions beat SAGU, complete sweep of series
Zach Armstrong was solid in six innings of pitching and the bullpen did the job again as the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College defeated Southwestern Assemblies of God University 5-1 in the final game of a three-game series on a cool, windy Saturday at Scorpion Field.
Coupled with 7-6 and 10-1 victories Friday, UTB-TSC (8-3, 3-0 RRAC) swept the three-game series from SAGU (8-4, 0-3).
The series capped the end of a stretch of 11 straight home games to start the season for the Scorpions. UTB-TSC finally goes on the road to face Texas A&M University-Kingsville in a doubleheader at 3 p.m. Tuesday.
“We went 3-0 in conference games, which is where we wanted to be,” Scorpions coach Bryan Aughney said. “SAGU is much improved, and they battled us. We were able to get timely hitting to win the first game (Friday). Marcos de Leon and pitched well after one bad inning. Adam Vera did another great job and gave us the opportu-nity to win. Our pitching (Saturday) with Zach Armstrong and the bullpen was solid, and we played good defense. We have to continue to get better offensively. We’re leaving too many guys on base.”
Armstrong went the first six innings and Austin Bickerton, Trevor Guston and Matt Leffler pitched one inning of relief each. Between them, they allowed six hits, struck out four and did not walk a batter.
The only run SAGU scored in the sixth inning was unearned.
Like the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, during which the Scorpions did not score in the first three in-nings, Saturday’s game started the same way. The game was scoreless through four innings before the Scorpions tallied twice to take a 2-0 lead. SAGU cut the margin to 2-1 and the Scorpions made it 3-1 in the sixth.
In the eighth after a Scott Frazier walk, left-handed leadoff hitter Zach Cordia ripped a shot down deep down the right-field line. The ball appeared to go foul, but the home plate umpire ruled it a home run. SAGU coach Jon Shockley pleaded his case to the umpire, but to no avail.
UTB-TSC finished with seven hits, two by Cordia who drove in two runs with the homer. Frazier had two hits, two walks and scored two runs.
After Tuesday’s doubleheader in Kingsville, UTB-TSC returns to RRAC action at home when the Scorpions play host Texas Wesleyan University in a three-game series Feb. 17-18.
