CANYON, Texas - In the rubber match of the three-game series, the Cameron baseball could not keep the No. 12 ranked West Texas A&M Buffs off the scoreboard, falling 17-5 in seven innings.
After the two teams split Sunday's doubleheader, the Aggies and Buffs squared off on Monday afternoon for the series finale.
Kyle Williams turned to
Marcos Feria to start the rubber match with the 12th ranked Buffs. Feria's outing lasted as long as the previous two starters for CU, tossing 2.1-innings of 5-hit baseball while allowing nine runs, four earned, and five free passes.
The Aggie offense continued to fight, knocking out the Buffs starter after the first inning thanks to a four-run outburst in the bottom half of the frame, which was started by
Jayce Clem. The Randlett, Okla. native continued his hot weekend with a sharp double to left-center to plate
Beau Williams.
Ryan Carter, who has been equally as effective as Clem at the dish so far, plated Clem and
Jordan Harrison-Dudley on a deep double of his own up the middle.
Casey Yeager got his season started with an RBI double down the left-field line to conclude the Aggies scoring in the first.
The bats stayed hot entering the second frame as
Beau Williams jumped on a 3-2 fastball and put it over the right-field wall to give the Aggies their fifth run of the day. From there, CU's offense was held at bay for the next two frames.
After Feria's rocky start, the Aggie bullpen picked him up with
Tyler Gregg, working on his second straight day, cleaned up the third inning recording the final two-outs unblemished.
Weston Max came in to toss a clean fourth inning.
Max ran into some trouble in the fifth frame when what should have been a harmless lead-off single turned into a runner threatening on third with no outs via a Yeager error in left. An infield single put runners on the corners with no outs for the Buffs offense which plated a run on a deep sac-fly into right field to take a commanding five-run lead in the fifth. After a double-steal put two runners in scoring position, which is where the inning unraveled. The Buffs totaled 5 runs in the fifth.
The Buffs brought across 17 runs in this game, claiming the win of the three-game series. Cameron scratched across five runs during Monday's outing, which all came in the first two innings of the seven-inning run-rule game.
Cameron is set to make their home debut at McCord Field for the 2021 season next weekend, as they host Eastern New Mexico for a three-game set. The two squads are scheduled to play a double-header starting at 12 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 26, and then wrap up the series with a single game at 1 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 27.
