LAWTON, Okla. – The Cameron Aggies (14-7, 10-5 LSC) baseball team split a pair of games with Lone Star Conference rival Southwestern Oklahoma (19-7, 15-6 LSC) on Saturday at McCord Field.
In game one, CU came away with a 5-1 victory behind James Rhodes but fell in the rubber game 14-8.
In the first, Josh Dawson and Joe Halley reached on a pair of back-to-back walks and advanced a base on a wild pitch from starting pitcher Jeremy Guest. Guest induced a pair pop ups to get the first two outs of the inning. With runners at third and second, Nate Valdez roped a line drive to left field to clear the bases with a stand up double to give the Ags a 2-0 lead.
The Ags struck again in the third as Chase Larsson took a hanging 3-1 pitch from over the right center field fence just past the 400-foot marker to put CU up 3-0.
The Bulldogs got on the board in the fourth with a double to left field to bring in their first run of the game. With a runner on third, Rhodes walked a pair of batters to load the bases with one out but managed to get out of the inning with a pair of strikeouts.
In the sixth, SWOSU worked themselves into a bases loaded situation with no outs prompting Head Coach Todd Holland to bring in Jerry Pajak on relief. A line drive to third was caught in the air by Valdez who then tagged the base for a bang-bang double play. Pajak got out of the inning unscathed by inducing a pop fly to center field.
The Aggies added another pair of runs off a Kenny Held home run to right center for the final punctuation point of game one as they evened the series with a 5-1 victory.
Rhodes picked up the win on five complete innings pitched. He struck out six batters, walked six, and allowed just four hits. Pajak was credited with the save after throwing two innings while striking out three.
In game two, the Aggies got going early off starter David Franics with three straight walks to begin the game to bring up Held with no outs. SWOSU skipper Scott Selby elected to bring in Doug Carrol in relief, and Held wasted no time in welcoming him to the game as he launched a bomb over the scoreboard in left field for a grand slam to put the Aggies up 4-0.
In the second, Taylor Lyons got a lead off double and advanced home on a pair of passed balls to put the Aggies up 5-0. Valdez put another run on the board with a double off the left field wall to bring in Josh Dawson from third. Joe Halley was thrown out from left field on the play at home but not before the Aggies went up 6-0.
Southwestern got on the board with an inside-the-park homerun from Nelson Espinal to cut the lead in half to 6-3 in the third.
P.J. Ortega got the Aggies going again in the third as he pushed a ball through the middle past shortstop Christian Wise. Wise was tagged with an error on the play as Dalton Hillard came around from second to beat the play at the plate, making it 7-3.
In the fifth, SWOSU managed a single run on three hits out of a bases loaded situation to cut the Cameron lead to 7-4. The Bulldogs threatened with an out but relief pitcher Logan Grimes induced a double play on his first to get out of the inning without further damage.
The Bulldogs added another pair of runs in the sixth off a Cantrell single to left center out of a bases loaded situation. Larsson was able to throw out Andre Yates at third to end the inning with CU leading 7-6.
The visitors completed their rally to take their first lead of the game in the seventh with five runs scored including a grand slam from John Cotton to take a 11-7 lead.
They added three more runs in the eighth and held on or the 14-8 victory and the series win.
Logan Grimes picked up the loss for the Aggies in 2.1 innings worked. He struck out three batters and scattered eight hits while allowing seven runs.
The Aggies return to the diamond on Monday, March 21 when they play host to Augustana (S.D.) in a pair of twinbills scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. at McCord Field.
