CANYON, Texas – The #17 Buffs of West Texas A&M struggled to come up with clutch hits in key situations on Friday afternoon as they dropped their Lone Star Conference opener to the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas, 9-5 at Wilder Park in Canyon.
 
The Javelinas got on the board in the top of the first inning as Ramsey Armador grounded out to second to plate Shelby Becker with one out for the 1-0 lead.
 
WT responded in the home half of the frame as Evan Leibl double off of the right field wall with the bases loaded and one out to drive in a pair followed by an Eddy Savoie RBI groundout and a Mike Manetta RBI double to make it 4-1.
 
Kingsville cut into the lead in the second as Nick Wolff and Amador registered RBI singles with two outs to make it 4-3. TAMUK tied up the game in the fifth on a Steven Bonuz singled home Wolff to make it 4-4.
 
The Buffs retook the lead in the home half of the sixth inning with two outs as Kason Haggard singled thru the right side to plate Savoie. The Hogs used the long ball in the top of the seventh as Matthew Castro lifted a three run homerun the other way to right with two outs to make it 7-5.
 
Kingsville struck again with two out in the top of the eighth as they took advantage of a WT error, Kramer would double to left center with the bases loaded to drive in two and make it 9-5.
 
Maddux Hoaglund picked up the loss (0-1) on the mound for the Buffs, allowing three earned runs on three hits with two walks and two strikeouts in his 2.0 innings of relief.
 
The Buffs and Javelinas continue the series tomorrow afternoon with a doubleheader set for 1 p.m. at Wilder Park in Canyon.