The University of the Southwest Baseball team traveled to Texas A&M-Texarkana (TAMUT) for the start of conference this past weekend. In the previous weekend, the Mustangs took three out of four against Oklahoma Panhandle State and were looking to continue strong play going into this weekend. In last year's series, Southwest took three out of four from the Eagles at the end of the regular season and bounced them from the RRAC tournament. This year would be a different story, as TAMUT were able to outplay the Mustangs for the series sweep to open up conference play. 
 
GAME 1
After a quiet first inning from both sides, the Eagles got on the board in a big way, starting in the 2^nd inning. TAMUT put up eight runs, four of them earned, off of starter AJ Cordova. They would add another later in the inning off of reliever Angel Rios, who came on with no outs to extinguish the fire.
 
Rios would pitch well after that inning, tallying four innings while only allowing one run and striking out three. 
 
The Mustangs would add one in the top of the sixth to get them on the board in what was now a 9-1 game. TAMUT would answer right back in the bottom half, putting up three unearned runs off of reliever Cade Contreras.
 
USW would rally for five in the top of the seventh to make it 12-6, but that would be all she wrote for game one of the Saturday doubleheader. 
 
GAME 2
Pitching would lead the way for the Mustangs as Cody Stone took the hill and put in a quality start. Stone would go six innings of four-hit ball while only allowing one run one. 
 
Southwest would strike first in game two of the day with two runs in the second inning. Isaiah Garcia would leadoff of the inning with a single and eventually come in to score. Carson Miller would score the second run of the inning off a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
 
Texarkana answered back a few innings later with a solo shot to left field to make it a 2-1 ballgame. 
 
It would stay like this all the way until the bottom of the sixth when Texarkana would string together a rally to tie the game. After a silent inning from the USW bats, TAMUT would walk it off with a two-run homerun in the bottom of the tenth to win 4-2.
 
GAME 3
The series finale started similar to the first game, with no teams making noise on offense in the first inning. TAMUT would get it going again in the second inning when a string of hits and free bases led to them putting up five and knocking out starter Auden Bustamante in the middle of the inning. 
 
Reliever Miguel Olivas came into the game and held off the Eagles for 2.2 innings, allowing no hits or runs. 
 
The Mustangs would try to find a spark in the fourth inning when Senior Andru Sanchez smoked a ball over the right-center field fence to make it a 5-1 ballgame. 
An inning later, the Eagles would answer with a six spot in the bottom half of the fifth inning. They would add another three in the bottom of the sixth to add some more insurance to their lead, as this game would end 14-1 in seven innings. 
 
Head Coach Steve Appel had this to say following the series, "We got beat in every phase this weekend, plain and simple. We had two very bad innings on the mound in the first and third games, and things just didn't get going offensively for us. I thought we barreled some baseballs up and played okay defense; however, it wasn't our weekend." 
 
"We have to change some things internally and get back to work this week. We are back at home, and that always helps to get back to playing our type of baseball." 
 
USW Baseball returns home this weekend to face conference foe Jarvis Christian College Friday, February 24^th, and Saturday, February 25^th. Continue to follow USW Athletics and USW Baseball on all social media for scores and updates throughout the season.