CANYON, Texas – The #15 Buffaloes of West Texas A&M connected on four long balls as they powered past the sixth-seeded St. Edward's Hilltoppers at Foster Field in San Angelo during the opening game of the 2022 Lone Star Conference Baseball Championship.
 
The Buffs used the long ball to take an early lead as Adam Becker connected on his 15^th of the season to leadoff the home half of the second inning followed by a Will Fuenning solo shot to left field to make it 2-0. WT would take advantage of a two-out error in the third as Eric Ortiz bounced a ground-rule double into the home bullpen with the bases loaded to extend the lead to 4-0.
 
St. Edward's answered back in the top of the fourth as Eric Worden lifted a three-run homerun to straight away center field off of the batter's eye to make it 4-3. The Toppers took their first lead of the afternoon in the fifth as Jake Hahn singled to right to score Hunter Conner followed later in the frame by a Stacey Bailey sac fly to center field for the 5-4 advantage.
 
The Hilltoppers would extend their lead in the top of the sixth as Davis Drewek lifted a solo homerun to center to make it 6-4. The Buffs would answer in the bottom of the inning as Ortiz scored on an errant throw followed by an Eddy Savoie RBI infield single and bases loaded walks to Becker and Kennedy Badgett, Fuenning reached on a fielder's choice to score Ryan Johnson to give WT the 9-6 lead.
 
Paul Wittmann added to the WT lead in the home half of the seventh with his first collegiate homerun as the freshman went the other way into the bullpen for a two-run shot. Drewek connected on his second long ball of the game in the eight before the Buffs scored three runs in the bottom of the frame with Becker's second homerun followed by an Ortiz RBI double and a Wittmann sac fly for the 14-7 lead.
 
Nick Marshall picked up the win (11-3) for the Buffs, allowing six earned runs on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts in his 6.0 innings of work. Colton Charnholm allowed one run on three hits with a strikeout in his one frame before Reese Miller registered three strikeouts while allowing just one hit over the final two innings.
 
The Buffs advance to tomorrow's winner's bracket contest at 3 p.m. against the winner of tonight's Angelo State/UT Tyler matchup at Foster Field.