The UTPB baseball team is coming off a much better series than a week ago.
For one, the Falcons weren’t swept in the series, outscored 51-7 or playing the No. 2-ranked team in the country.
After beginning the season with four-straight losses to national powerhouse Angelo State, UTPB looked much better in its home opening series against Texas A&M International as the Falcons split the series with the Dustdevils.
UTPB began the weekend with a 4-3 walk-off victory Friday before losing Saturday’s doubleheader by scores of 7-3 and 10-5. The Falcons ended the series on a high note with a high-scoring 16-12 win Sunday at Roden Field.
The Falcons now sit at 2-6 overall, 2-6 in Lone Star Conference.
UTPB head coach Justin Phillips said he liked the way his team responded on Sunday after Saturday’s losses.
“Sunday morning, we went through the emotions again,” Phillips said. “There wasn’t a sense of urgency so I brought them into the clubhouse. We walked in there and I challenged them. They’re not going to give anything to you. They’re going to expect us to roll over after the way we played on Saturday and the reality was that we had a choice to make and the discussion was we’re going to take it after them or they’re going to come after us and respond and we responded at a higher level.”
In Sunday’s series finale, the Falcons finished with 15 hits but had four errors while the Dustdevils had 14 hits and four errors.
Five of the Falcons’ runs came in the sixth inning alone while UTPB also scored four in the seventh.
UTPB’s Kaleb Scull had three runs, three hits and 2 RBIs in the 16-12 win while Jack Haggerty had two runs and two hits and two RBIs.
Despite the split, Phillips was happy to close out the series with the victory.
“It was huge,” Phillips said. “It was huge because of the things we’re asking to make adjustments on to see the results come into play. A lot of times, you don’t see those results and they start taking a toll on you but the adjustments that they needed to make, they made. They saw the results when that happened. We made big plays and got clutch hits. Timely hits matter and we had that on Sunday.”
Next up for UTPB is a four-game road series against Texas A&M-Kingsville beginning with a 3 p.m. Friday game at Nolan Ryan Field.
Games two and three will take place starting at 2 p.m. Saturday before both teams close out the series with Game four at 1 p.m. Sunday.
The Javelinas are currently 4-4, 4-4 and are coming off a 3-1 series win against Cameron last week.
Phillips said his team needs to come back with the same intensity this week as they showed in Sunday’s win against Texas A&M International.
“We need to have that same mindset before we go on the road,” Phillips said. “Playing on the road is difficult. It’s one of our longest trips. So changing the schedule up affects them a little bit so we just want to make sure our intensity stays at a high level.”
For the Falcons, the biggest thing is staying consistent in practice before heading on the road.
“We’ll leave on Thursday morning and they’re allowing us to practice there a little bit so we’ll have an opportunity to get our feet wet and get a feel for their field. For us, we need to make sure everyone stays on the same schedule and navigate through that.”
Phillips knows that UTPB’s pitching is going to be crucial in giving the Falcons a chance to succeed this weekend.
“We need to pitch well,” Phillips said. “At the end of the day, when we pitch well and give our guys a chance, everything else takes care of business. We’ll roll with Damian Robles in the first game and see what we can do and we need to respond in games two, three and four. If we can pitch well, then I think we’ll have a good shot.”
