STERLINGTON, LA. (May 5, 2019) – The Our Lady of the Lake University (OLLU) baseball team had to wait an extra day to play its second game of the Red River Athletic Conference Championship Tournament. They faced LSU-Alexandria (LSUA), and in nine schedule innings, the Saints came out ahead to win 3-1.

The win keeps the Saints in contention for the tournament title. They are scheduled to play Jarvis Christian College on Monday at noon in the tournament's seventh game. LSUA will play LSU-Shreveport on Monday at 3:30 p.m. in the tournament's eighth game. The winner of the eighth game will play the loser of the seventh game in the tournament's ninth game. The championship game will take place on Tuesday, May 7 at 1:30 p.m. A second championship game is scheduled one hour later, if necessary.

Head Coach Bryan Aughney commented, "That was a pitchers' duel for sure. Four hits combined, both starters threw a great game. Aaron Gonzalez was lights out. He had some control issues late in the game but made pitches when he needed to. We managed to scratch two runs and tack on a huge sac-fly from TJ Kassner that proved to be the game winner. Joey Baker does what he does, and Ryan Ramsey (SR/Grapevine, Texas) ran down a ball in the gap to end it. Now it's on to tomorrow; we need to sleep fast." 

Game overview

Saints' ace and conference newcomer of the year Aaron Gonzalez (JR/Houston, Texas) started on the mound for the Saints. He started a little shaky as he walked Ronnie McBride to begin the game. McBride stole third on a wild throw from Gonzalez, and he later scored to give the Generals the 1-0 lead. Luckily Gonzalez would come back in later innings to pitch superbly.

Gonzalez kept the Generals scoreless through the sixth inning when the Saints' bats came alive. Jacob Mitchell (SO/Harker Heights, Texas ) first reached on an error by shortstop Ty Desormeaux. Andrew Ogletree (SO/Mission, Texas) came in to pinch hit, and he advanced to second on a ground out from Jose Diaz (JR/Pinar del Rio, Cuba). A wild pitch from Gavin Sonnier sent Ogletree to third. Daniel Anciso (SR/Harlingen, Texas) walked to first, and Jorge Collazo Jr. (SO/San Antonio, Texas) came in to run for him. A hit from Alec Martinez (SO/Corpus Christi, Texas) scored Ogletree, and Collazo scored on the same play after an error by Desormeaux. The Saints now led 2-1.

Gonzalez faced three batters in the seventh and retired all three.

In the bottom of the seventh, Ryan Chapa (SO/Corpus Christi, Texas) walked to first, and TJ Kassner (SR/Corpus Christi, Texas) hit a sac-fly to send Chapa home to give the Saints the 3-1 lead.

The Generals threatened in the eighth inning as the bases were loaded and a run came in. With the bases still loaded, OLLU got out of the inning after a ground-out double play from Kris Tamplet to TJ Kassner at short.

The top of the ninth inning for the Saints ended quickly, and the Generals came back in the bottom of the ninth to threaten once again. Joey Baker (JR/Cuero, Texas) came in to relieve Aaron Gonzalez, and he was able to close out the game giving the Saints the 3-2 win.

Gonzalez earns the win after pitching 8.1 innings and striking out 10, while Baker gets the save for the Saints.

Leading the offense was Alec Martinez who went 2-3 and adding an RBI. Jose Diaz went 1-4, while TJ Kassner had an RBI.