LAWTON – A late call reversal in favor of the Aggies in game two provided an extra inning 7-6 walk-off win to salvage a split with East Central on a cool afternoon at McCord Field; Cameron would drop the first game 6-1 with ECU putting up a six spot in the away frame of the second inning.
The games were the first of the season and the earliest start in program history for the Aggies who are led by first year coach
Brady Huston who earned his first career win in front of the home crowd.
"In both games we played really hard, we just weren't throwing strikes in the first game," said
Brady Huston. "We tried to let our guys work out of it…we hit some balls hard and ran into some lineout double plays. In the second game our guys came back and really fought…we used a lot of our bench, it's going to be like that all year, we are really deep offensively."
In game one, Cameron opened the contest with an early lead off of an ECU error to allowing
Jonathan Reyes to score. All the other scoring would take place in the next frame with the Tigers putting up six runs, all with two outs recorded to win the game in seven innings.
The Aggies were limited to three hits, with
Javarias Banks taking the loss off of 1 2/3 innings of work,
Codey Upton came out of the pen for CU with finished the contest with two hits allowed.
The nightcap was back-and-forth with ECU getting a run in the opening frame. Cameron responded back with a run off of a wild pitch in the next frame and a RBI single in the third to take a 2-1 lead. After two scoreless innings, ECU tied the game off a CU wild pitch and retook the lead with a sacrifice fly. In the home half of the sixth,
Steven Swingle doubled to right center to score Reyes in to retie the game at three.
Matt Nilmeyer put the Ags in front once again in the seventh off of a single scoring
Nate Hale. However, ECU came back in the next frame with three runs to put them ahead 6-4. But the Aggies were not finished yet and
Justin Winters provided CU a boost off the bench in the eighth and retied the game with a double off the wall in centerfield.
A scoreless ninth led to extra innings and the Tigers would get two on with one out and a grounder at first looked to be a go-ahead scoring play in favor to ECU. But the call would be reversed and runner's interference would be called on an ECU player heading to first and a second out on the batter heading to first ending the inning. With second chance at life, CU took advantage quickly with a
Tyler Cook triple down the right field line with no outs. A pair of walks later would lead to
Justin Winters providing a winning SAC fly close things out 7-6 in favor of the Aggies.
"It was big (the call), they scored a run off it and if we don't get the call, its seven to six in favor of them and we still need to get someone out," added Huston. "So I thought it was big, our guys went back to the dugout with a tied ballgame and all we needed to do was scratch out a run."
Nilmeyer at the plate was 2-4 with a pair of RBI and a walk,
Justin Winters went 2-3 with three RBI off the CU bench. The Aggies used five pitchers with
Logan Fanning tossing the final two for this first win in an Aggie uniform.
Cameron will be on the road next on Feb. 7 to visit Southeastern Oklahoma for a non-conference doubleheader tilt in Durant starting at noon.
