WEATHERFORD, Okla. – A day after scoring a season high 11 runs against Tarleton State, the Aggie baseball team exploded for 13 runs in a 13-6 non-conference win over Southwestern Oklahoma State.
Matt Nilmeyer hit his first homer of the season, had a pair of doubles, and drove had six RBI as Cameron improves to 17-25 on the year.
Cameron jumped out to an early lead as they scored three in the top of the first inning. The Aggies loaded the bases with
Nate Hale and
Steven Swingle hitting back-to-back singles and
Justin Winters walking with one out. An out later, Nilmeyer doubled to the left center gap and cleared the bases to give CU the early lead.
The Bulldogs scored a run on an error in the bottom of the second inning and then another in the fourth on a passed ball to cut CU's lead to just one. SWOSU then tied the ballgame up on a two out single in the bottom of the fifth.
With a new ballgame on their hands, the Aggies responded by taking back the lead in the top of the sixth inning. Nilmeyer led off the inning with a double and then scored on a base hit by
Terrell Evans. Two batters later,
Jonathan Reyes drove in Evans on a single to left to put the Ags back up by two. However, three hits by the Bulldogs in the bottom of the inning combined for a pair of runs to knot up the game at five runs apiece.
Cameron continued their hot hitting by striking for four runs in the top of the seventh. Winters doubled to open up the inning, and then
Tyler Cook reached on a wild pitch to put a pair of men on for CU. Nilmeyer added to his already impressive day by hitting his first homer of the season and driving in three more runs. After a pair of outs,
Tyler Palmer doubled and then came around to score on another Reyes RBI single that put the Aggies up 9-5. SWOSU was able to load the bases with just one out in the bottom frame of the seventh, but was only able to get one run out of the inning, making it 9-6 in favor of the Ags.
The scoring surge continued into the ninth inning as Hale drove in a pair of runs on a single with the bases loaded and
Tyler West singled down the line to score a pair in the next at bat to extend the Ags lead to 13-6.
Zek Kleypas got the final three outs, two coming via the strikeout, in the bottom of the ninth to secure the win.
Cameron used six pitchers in the game as
Jordan Dailey got the win to move to 3-4 on the season. Dailey went two and two thirds innings and gave up three runs on five hits with three strikeouts. Starter
Nolan Withrow pitched three and a third one hit innings while giving up two runs, neither being earned.
Nilmeyer's three hits and six RBI led the Aggies and was his best offensive outburst this season. Reyes, Hale, and McKinzie each had two hits, while West joined Hale and Reyes driving in two runs each.
The Aggies will look to keep their bats hot heading into their final home series of the season, as they host Eastern New Mexico for three games, April 24-25.
