LUBBOCK, Texas (April 8, 2023) – Lubbock Christian scored multiple runs in four of their six offensive opportunities on Saturday, taking the series finale against Texas A&M-Kingsville 14-3 in seven innings.
 
The win gave the Chaps a 3-1 series win, improving them to 21-16 overall and 20-16 in Lone Star Conference play. It is LCU's third-straight series win against Texas A&M-Kingsville.
 
TAMUK threatened to go on top almost from the start, putting runners at second and third with two outs, but Chap starter Brevin McCool was perfectly positioned to catch a lineout to end the frame. In the Chaps half, the plated three runs on a single from Chris Shull and a double from Jarred Gibson, and they never looked back.
 
The lead was cut to two in the second, as the Javelinas plated their first run, but the Lubbock Christian put on an offensive shot in the bottom of the third. After hitting no home runs in the first three games of the season, they hit four in a span of five batters in the third. Eduardo Acosta started the inning with a double before Nate Van Maanen left the yard with an opposite field homer.
 
This forced a pitching change from the Javelinas, and Shull greeted the new hurler with a first pitch home run to left. Jarred Gibson came up next and promptly homered to left field as well. Ryan Ball was the next batter and just missed making it four in a row by flying out to the warning track in straightaway center. Hayden Blair closed out the third inning homer party by clobbering his first of the season over the right field wall, and the Chaps ended the frame up 8-1.
 
LCU's back-to-back-to-back home runs were their first since Braden Hayward, Hill Alexander and Andrew Pratt did it on March 29, 2019 in a 28-1 win over Newman.
 
A Javelina home run cut the deficit to six in the top of the fourth, but Lubbock Christian added four more in their half. The first run of the inning came off the bat of Shull, who greeted yet another new Javelina pitcher with a home run. Blair tripled in another run and scored on a Carson Ogilvie drove him in by beating out an infield single. He scored the final run of the frame on a wild pitch.
 
The final two Lubbock Christian runs came in the bottom of the sixth. McCool drove in Caden Hensley with a sacrifice fly, and Acosta singled to score Ogilvie.
 
Somewhat lost in the offensive onslaught was the pitching performance of Chaparral starter Andrew Duran, who improved to 5-3 on the year and tossed his third complete game. Duran scattered eight hits and walked only one while striking out six. The Javelinas were 0-4 when batting with runners in scoring position against him.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
.583 | After recording no two-out hits in either of yesterday's games, Lubbock Christian was 7-12 for a .583 batting average with two outs on Saturday
12 | Jarred Gibson caught two more runners stealing on Saturday, bringing his total for the weekend to four and his season total to 12
.556 | With today's win, LCU's LSC winning percentage rose to .556, pushing them ahead of the Javelinas and into fifth place
 
NEXT UP
The Chaps will be back on the diamond shortly as they host a midweek game against former Sooner Athletic Conference rival Wayland Baptist at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Hays Field.