CANYON, Texas – The #22 West Texas A&M Buffaloes came away with an impressive shutout victory on Opening Day as senior Reese Patterson drove in three runs while Zach Dixon and Carter Brown dominated on the mound against the Oklahoma Baptist Bison on Thursday afternoon at Wilder Park to open up the Bob Sloan Baseball Classic.
 
Both starting pitchers put up zeroes in the opening frame before the first base hit of the game by Ramon Enriquez to leadoff the second. Enriquez advanced to second on a passed ball before Dixon forced a popup to Eric Ortiz in foul territory followed by a groundout to Justin Robinson and a fly out to Keone Givens to end the inning.
 
The teams traded base hits over the next inning before Kyle Moos grinned out a 14-pitch at bat to leadoff the home half of the third inning with a walk, Robinson drew a walk followed by an Izaiah Madrid bunt single to load the bases with no outs before Cade Engle singled to left center to drive in the game's first run.
 
Kaimana Bartolome, Enriquez and Walker Keller drew walks to start the fourth followed by a fielder's choice for the first out of the frame. Dixon registered his fourth strikeout of the game followed by a grounder to Robinson at short to strand the bases loaded. 
 
The Buffs finally got to the OBU bullpen to start the home half of the fifth as Engle was hit by a pitch to leadoff the frame followed by a Givens bunt single, Patterson came up with a big hit as the senior singled up the middle with two outs to drive in a pair and extend the lead to 3-0.
 
WT added to their lead in the bottom of the seventh inning as Patterson continued his big day at the plate with a sacrifice fly to right field to drive in Jonah Gonzales and extend the lead to 4-0. That was more than enough of a lead for Brown as the senior allowed no runs on just three hits with four strikeouts over the last four innings to pick up a save.
 
Dixon picked up the win on the mound, allowing no runs on three hits with three walks and four strikeouts in his five innings of work.
 
The Buffs and Bison return to the diamond tomorrow afternoon with doubleheader action starting at 1 p.m. in Canyon.