LUBBOCK, Texas (February 20, 2022) – Lubbock Christian rallied from deficits of five runs and four runs on Sunday, beating St. Mary's 12-11 on a walkoff home run by Grant Griffin.
 
Griffin had only entered the game the game in the top of the eighth as a defensive replacement. He came to the plate with one out in the ninth for his first at-bat with the scored tied at 11 and Connor Schmidt on the mound. Schmidt pumped in two fastballs that Griffin swung through, but he connect on the 0-2 pitch, driving the ball over the wall in right center field.
 
The home run was the first of the season by Griffin, but it was the sixth different long ball of the day from the Chaps. Luis Navarro hit two, while Caden Hensley, Eduardo Acosta and Jarred Gibson all homered once along with Griffin.
 
Every single home run was necessary though, as the Chaps (9-3, 9-3) had to dig themselves out of a pair of holes. The Rattlers (4-6, 2-6) built an early 5-0 lead, which LCU overcame and went up by four later in the game to force another Chap comeback.
 
The first five Rattler runs came off of LCU starter Tyler Hardwick, and his counterpart Steven Medrano started the game well, keeping the Chaps off the board for three frames and holding them to just three hits in that time.
 
In the fourth though, Lubbock Christian sent 11 batters to the plate against Medrano, and by the time he finally got out of the inning, his team was down by three. Mason Donohoe got things going with a one-out single, but all of the scoring came with two outs. Hensley joined Donohoe on base with a full-count walk, and both runners scored when Acosta homered. George Mendazona got on base with a single and scored on Navarro's first homer of the game. Then Gibson tripled, Larry Leitha walked, and both of them scored on a two-error play by the St. Mary's third basemen.
 
But, after the seven-spot in the fourth, St. Mary's came right back with five runs in the top of the fifth. Four of the runs came on a grand slam from Rattler catcher Brian Juarez. StMU tacked on one more run in the top of the sixth for an 11-7 lead. All six of those runs came off reliever Ethan Coombes.
 
Coombes settled in a little after the sixth and kept the Rattlers off the board in the seventh and eighth. StMU's bullpen matched him though, hanging up zeros in the fifth, sixth and seventh.
 
Brett Brown came in to start the eighth though, and LCU's offense went back to work. Hensley started things off with a solo shot to right center, letting the wind carry the ball out for his third home run. Two batters later, with Mendazona on base again, Navarro clobbered his second home run that brought the Chaps within a run. St. Mary's brought in Connor Schmidt to try and stop the bleeding, but his second pitch was blasted over the wall by Gibson to tie the game. Schmidt struck out the next two batters to set up the ninth.
 
Coombes went out to start the ninth, but walked the first batter, bringing on Colton Brown. The first batter Brown faced reached on a throwing error, putting two on with no outs. He escaped the jam with a strikeout looking, a ground out, and a swinging strikeout, setting up Griffin's walkoff home run.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
18 | Entering Saturday's doubleheader, the Chaps had hit just six home runs on the season. In the final three games of the series, though, they clobbered 12 and now rank second in the LSC with 18, just behind UT Permian Basin
9-3 | Lubbock Christian's 9-3 start to the season is their best since 2016, when the team won 13 games before their first loss
38 | The Chaps racked up 38 at-bats in the nine innings on Sunday, which was the most in a single-game this season
 
NEXT UP
Lubbock Christian will take a brief break from Lone Star Conference action to host New Mexico Highlands for a two-game series at Hays Field next Friday and Saturday.