ABILENE, Texas – In their first chance to clinch the championship title at the 2011 Lone Star Conference Baseball Championships, the Cameron Aggies (33-15) fell 10-4 to Southeastern Oklahoma (33-17).
The Storm jumped on the board right away K.C. Pfister drove a run in on a single to right field as all four of the first batters reached safely.
Following a strike-out, SE’s Brad Shankle drew a five-pitch walk to bring in the second run of the inning.
Another single from the Storm added the third run of the frame before
Clay Vanderlaan was called to the bump with the bases loaded.
Riley Keith drew a full count walk to make it a 4-0 game and Dalton Nelson hit into a fielder choice for the second out but was able to bring in a run from third.
The Aggies escaped the frame after
P.J. Ortega was able to catch Nelson in a run down situation on his way to second but no before the Storm added another run.
SE starter Vance Woodruff pitched a gem and kept CU off the bases through 2.2 innings, but
Kaleb Brawner was able to reach on a full count walk in the third.
Woodruff ran his no-hitter into the fourth inning but LSC Player of the Year
Chase Larsson got his first homer of the tournament and national best 29th of the season, a single shot over the right field fence, to make it a 9-1 ball game.
With the RBI, Larsson also tied Nate Arevalo’s 2009 single season RBI record with 84.
The Aggies found more life in the fifth as
Kenny Held hit a two-out single to left field that drove in two runs and cut the Storm’s lead to 9-3.
In the seventh, CU managed across another run as Brawner and
Josh Dawson led off with back-to-back singles. Following a pair of flyouts to center field,
Andrew Garcia squeezed a ball up the middle to bring in Brawner from second to cut it to 9-4.
A hit batsman later and Woodruff’s day was done after 7.2 innings of work. He allowed four runs on six hits with four strikeouts and four walks.
Heath Wyatt, SE’s closer, appeared to close out the inning out of a bases loaded situation, inducing a two-pitch ground out at third.
The Storm got back on the board in the eighth with a Pfister groundout to the pitcher but heads up base running from Jeremy Miller allowed him to come in from third to make it 10-4. It was the first run Vanderlaan had surrendered since a three-run second.
That completed the scoring as the Aggies went down with one base runner in the final frame.
Corey Davidson (5-4) suffered the loss after just one-third inning of work, allowing six runs on six hits with two walks and a strikeout.