LAWTON – The Aggies dropped their final regular season game to Texas A&M-Kingsville on Sunday, 13-4, after going quiet offensively after the second inning.
Cameron baseball split the first two games of their season ending series with Javelinas falling 18-16 in game one and winning game two 14-8. In the series finale, the Aggies were held to just one four-run inning as the road squad used a trio of big innings to secure the win.
With
Jayce Clem on the mound in the first, the Javelinas opened the game with a four-run frame, with two hits and three free passes given up by the starter Clem.
Cameron answered with a four-run spot of their own in the second to tie the game, in what looked like would be a repeat of Friday's back-and-forth slugfest. A walk by
Cooper Edwards and back-to-back singles by
Kalen Haynes and
Ryan Carter loaded the bases. After Edwards scored on a wild pitch for the first run,
Nate Vargo drove in the second on a ground-ball out.
Erik Ohman hit a slow bouncing ball back to the TAMUK pitcher, allowing Carter to score and cut the lead to one.
Beau Williams capped off the inning with an RBI double that brought Ohman in to score to tie the game.
That would be where the CU offense would stall. The Javelinas brought in Tyler Henson, who pitched six innings of one-hit baseball with six strikeouts, after not being able to record an out in his outing on Friday.
Even Nichols pitched well in his two outings out of the bullpen for CU, but the Javelinas scored nine unanswered runs off
Joseph Flood and
Marcos Feria to take a 13-4 lead. They scored six runs in the fifth and three more in the seventh.
Devin Paz got the final out in the seventh and then gave up just one hit in the eighth to bridge the gap for senior
Alex Ward, who made his one and only appearance of the season in his final home game. The Lawton native allowed just one base runner on a hit-batter and struck out Garret Thompson for the final out of the frame.
In the ninth, TAMUK brought in Mason Foster to finish things off. A
Ryan Carter single to lead off the inning was followed by two straight outs. Down to their last out, CU skipper
Kyle Williams brought in senior
Tyler Garcia to pinch-hit in a bit of a feel-good moment. Garcia drew a full-count walk to put two runners on for Williams, but Foster was able to get the CU second baseman to go down swinging for the final out of the game.
After collecting 32 hits in the first two games of the series combined, Cameron was held to just seven hits in the finale, with Carter leading the way with a pair of base knocks and a walk. CU stranded eight runners on base and struck out nine times in the loss.
The Aggies end the season with an 8-31 overall record and an 8-25 mark in league play. They finish in a tie for 11th place in the league standings and miss out on the Lone Star Conference Championship, which begins next weekend.
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