TORNADOS TOPPLE RAMS
February 3, 2007

Box Score

FORT WORTH, TX:  The defending Red River Athletic Conference champion Texas Wesleyan University baseball team (0-1) suffered a season opening loss to Concordia University-Austin (2-1) on Sunday.  The Tornados topped the Rams by a score of 11-6 at LaGrave Field.

After Concordia took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, Brandon Frazier led the season off by drilling the first pitch into left-center for a leadoff triple.  Frazier then scored on a sacrifice fly from Butch Ballez.

The Rams took a 2-1 lead in the third inning when Ryan Jacobi reached on a leadoff single, advanced to third on a double from Ballez, and scored on a sac fly from Blake Walker.

Concordia took control with three runs in the fourth inning and three more in the fifth.  The Rams clawed back into the contest in the bottom of the fifth with an RBI single from Walker and a two run single from Zach Smith.

The Tornados put the game away with three runs in the seventh and another in the eighth.  Texas Wesleyan added an unearned tally in the bottom of the ninth and fell 11-6.

Concordia’s Stephen Szkotak (1-0) earned the win after allowing five runs on seven hits in five innings of work.  Jayson Rachuig (0-1) allowed four runs, three earned, on four hits while striking out seven in four innings of work and was tagged with the loss.

Frazier and Jacobi started their senior and sophomore seasons respectively with a 3-for-5 performance.  Newcomers Blake Walker, a junior transfer from Richland College, Mikey Valdez, a freshman out of Arlington Heights High Schoo, and Zach Smith, a senior transfer from UT-Pan American, all had multi hit games in their Texas Wesleyan debut.  Walker and Valdez went 2-for-4 and 2-for-5 respectively.  Smith went 3-for-5 at the plate.

The Rams will return to action on Thursday when they host Tabor College (KS).  That game is scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. first pitch at LaGrave Field.