LUBBOCK, Texas (March 26, 2022) – Saturday's doubleheader between Lubbock Christian University and St. Edward's featured a pair of tightly contested game and wins on both side, with LCU taking game one 4-0 and SEU winning the second game 8-7.
 
The Chaps (22-7, 20-7 LSC) won the first game behind another dominant pitching performance from Ethan Coombes in the first game and had the lead at several points in game two, but the Hilltoppers (19-8, 19-8 LSC) were able to hold on and win thanks to a strong relief outing from Jayson Flores.
 
GAME ONE
Coombes set the tone in the first inning against St. Edward's, striking out three batters with an infield single sandwiched in the middle in the top of the first. By the next time he took the mound, he was working with a lead.
 
George Mendazona got things going for the Chaps offensively with one out in the bottom of the first, surprising everyone by laying down a perfect bunt single on the first pitch he saw. Luis Navarro followed with a double. Mendazona scored on a groundout, and Mason Donohoe added another double to drive in Navarro.
 
The Hilltoppers went down without much of a fight in the second and third, but they threatened to tie things up in the fourth Stacey Bailey walked to start the inning and Davis Drewek followed with a single. The pair then worked a double steal to get them into scoring position. Coombes was able to wriggle out of the sticky situation thanks to a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play, getting a flyout to end the frame.
 
LCU got another run in the bottom of the fourth, as Edgar Hernandez walked and stole second. Caden Hensley drove him in with a single. In the fifth, Navarro added the Chaps' final run with a solo shot to lead off. It was his sixth home run of the season, which is tied for the second-most on the team.
 
The only other inning where Coombes faced trouble was the sixth, when he walked the firsts two batters and then walked a third to load the bases with one out. He struck out Cullen Ainsworth and Navarro made a leaping grab of a looping liner to end the inning.  
 
Coombes sat the Hilltoppers down in order in the seventh to complete his second-straight complete game shutout. The right-hander has now gone 14 straight innings without allowing a run.
 
GAME TWO
There were five lead changes in the second game of the day, as the two teams combined for 15 total runs and the Hilltoppers just avoided another Chaparral comeback.
 
The first inning was scoreless, but St. Edward's got on the board in the second, starting off a see-saw that would bounce back and forth over the next three innings.
 
Lubbock Christian retook the lead in the bottom of the second when Jaxson Edwards singled to drive in Donohoe and Jarred Gibson. SEU then answered with two runs of their own in the top of the third, one of which came on a Bailey home run to center field.
 
In the bottom of the third, Eduardo Acosta, Mendazona and Navarro all singled to start the inning. Navarro's single drove in a run, and another scored on a single from Donohoe later in the frame. Then Gibson worked a four-pitch walk to load the bases.
 
At that point, the Hilltoppers pulled Eric Worden for Flores, and the reliever got a ground ball double play to end the Chap rally.
 
SEU pulled in front for good in the top of the fourth, getting a run on an error, another on a passed ball, and two more on Bailey's second home run of the day, putting the gap at 7-4. LCU nearly rode the see-saw back to the top in the bottom of the inning with two runs, but stayed down by one.
 
Flores settled in after the fourth, sitting LCU down in order in the fifth and sixth innings. In the top of the sixth, his offense game him one more insurance run with a hit-by-pitch and two singles against Chap reliever Peyton Hutson.
 
That run proved important in the seventh and final frame, as the Chaps came up to bat down by two. Important, because Mendazona led off and crushed a home run to right field to start the inning. Down a run still, Flores sat the next three batters to preserve SEU's first win in the series.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
.700 | LCU third basemen George Mendazona has seven hits in 10 at-bats against the Hilltoppers, including two doubles, a homer and one walk
28 | With two runs in the first inning of the first game of the doubleheader, the Chaparrals have scored 28 first-inning runs this season while limiting their opponents to 7
.461 | SEU shortstop Morgan Allen has also had a good weekend so far, going 6-13 for a .461 batting average against the Chaps
 
NEXT UP
The Chaps have a series lead still and a chance to win the series on Sunday in the finale against St. Edward's, which will begin at 1 p.m. at Hays Field.