CANYON, Texas – The West Texas A&M Buffaloes scored seven runs in the top of the ninth inning but it wasn't enough as they fell to the #15 St. Edward's Hilltoppers, 8-7 in the Lone Star Conference series finale at Lucian-Hamilton Field in Austin, Texas. 
 
The series finale featured another pitcher's duel as WT's Douglas Rojas and SEU's Luke Negrete allowed no runs thru the first five innings of play with a combined seven strikeouts.
 
St. Edward's threatened in the home half of the seventh as they loaded the bases with no outs to force a move to the bullpen by the Buffs, Cullen Ainsworth would single up the middle to drive in a pair followed by a Lance Little three-run homerun the other way to right for the 5-0 lead.
 
The Hilltoppers used the long ball again to add to their lead in the eighth as Luke Johnson lifted a three-run shot to left field with two outs to extend the lead to 8-0. 
 
The Buffs wouldn't go down without a fight as Cameron Loy connected on a solo homerun to right center with one out in the ninth followed by an Adam Becker RBI single to right to plate Ryan Johnson, WT would load the bases followed by base hits from Evan Leibl and Eddy Savoie to make it 8-5. Mike Manetta would be hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and one out followed by a strikeout and a walk to Johnson to cut the lead to 8-7 before a ground ball ended the game, 8-7.
 
Maddux Hoaglund picked up the loss (0-2) as he allowed three earned runs on three hits with one walk and one strikeout in his 1.0+ innings of relief.
 
The Buffs head into their only non-conference opening in the schedule next weekend as they travel to Pueblo, Colorado to take on Montana State-Billings and the host ThunderWolves at Rawlings Field.