CANYON, Texas (April 14, 2014) – Justin Hargrove's bases-loaded single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning helped West Texas A&M cap a string of six consecutive runs to come back and defeat Lubbock Christian University 6-5 Tuesday night at Wilder Park. The comeback ruined a solid pitching performance by Chaps starting pitcher Jay Rawlins.

Rawlins made his second start of his LCU career and went the opening 2.2 innings without allowing a hit. Matt Cole, the 11th batter Rawlins faced, produced the first hit off of him. Pitching his longest outing of the season, Rawlins, with a 5-0 lead, walked his first batter in the sixth inning and then hit the following batter to allow WT's comeback. Josh Day, who had eight runs-batted-in against LCU last Tuesday, hit a two-run triple and he would be the last batter Rawlins faced. Day would score on a wild pitch on Mathew Lusk's first pitch in relief and it cut LCU's lead to 5-3. Cole produced an RBI single in the seventh inning to cut the Chaps lead to 5-4 and then came the errors.

Jace Reese led off the bottom of the eighth inning reaching on an error by third baseman Nikko Velarde and eventually scored on a two-out single by Mason Shifflett to tie the game 5-5. A missed routine grounder by first baseman Gerardo Arzaga led off the bottom of the ninth inning and put the winning run at second base. Trace Hansen grounded out to move the runner to third base and LCU intentionally walked the next two batters to load the bases. Guillaume Blanchette struck out Scott Cooper for the second out, but could not record a third out, as Hargrove lined to left centerfield for the walk-off win.

LCU had a 5-0 lead, opening the scoring with a pair of runs in the third inning. Arzaga and Velarde hit back-to-back doubles for the pair of runs. WT made a couple of errors in the sixth inning and LCU capitalized with an RBI single by Arzaga and another double by Velarde leading to a three-run third inning. The Chaps had opportunities to add to the lead, but they stranded 11 runners on base (10 through the first four innings).

Arzaga and Velarde each went 2-for-5 with a pair of RBI. Adam Norblom (2-for-4), Brendan McCarthy (2-for-3) and Stephen Withrow (2-for-4) also had multi-hit performances for the Chaps. Cole and Day each went 2-for-4 in the win for WT. LCU went with four pitchers and all were lefties. Rawlins went five innings and allowed three runs off three hits. Blanchette suffered the loss (4-4) allowing two unearned runs over the final 1.2 innings. Sean Michel pitched 0.2 innings in relief and claimed the win (4-0).

LCU fell to 20-19 and suffered their first loss in Canyon since the 2004 season. WT improved to 26-14 and completed the two-game season series sweep over the Chaps. LCU returns home Friday to open a three-game series with Rogers State University in Heartland Conference play. The doubleheader is scheduled for a 3 p.m. first pitch at Hays Field.