CANYON, Texas – The #5 Buffaloes of West Texas A&M suffered an extra-inning defeat in the first game of the day before responding with a dominant 13-4 victory in the nightcap on Saturday against the UT Permian Basin Falcons at Roden Field in Odessa, Texas.
 
The Buffs and Falcons close out the series tomorrow afternoon with first pitch set for 12:00 p.m. at Roden Field.
 
GAME ONE
The Buffs jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning as Dylan Fesperman singled to left with two outs to plate Ryan Camacho for the 1-0 lead. The Falcons answered in the second as a Victory Perez RBI groundout to short was enough to score Gibrian Pena to make it 1-1.
 
WT retook the lead in the top of the third with two outs as Kyle Micklus scored from third on a passes ball for the 2-1 advantage, UTPB answered in the home half of the frame as Pena singled thru the right side with two outs to score Mason Hamlin at 2-2.
 
The Buffs plated three runs in the top of the fourth inning as Rodric Black scored on an errant throw by the Falcons followed by a Landon Gaber RBI single to plate Glenn Noronha, Micklus added to the lead later in the frame on a sac fly that scored Gaber for the 5-2 lead.
 
The Falcons would answer again in the home half of the fifth on an Ethan Flodstrom RBI double that scored Hamlin to make it 5-3. UTPB wouldn't go down without a fight as they cut the lead to one on a Buffalo fielding error that scored Quincy McGraw Jr. followed by an intentional walk to load the bases, WT forced a double play grounder to short that plated the tying run to make it 5-5.
 
UTPB looked to walk it off in the bottom of the eighth inning as they loaded the bases with one out before Reese Miller locked in and forced a shallow fly ball followed by an attempted steal of home but Micklus would put the tag on the Falcon runner to send the teams to the ninth inning.
 
The Falcons walked it off in the bottom of the ninth with two outs as Payton Matthews singled to center to score 
Pena for the 6-5 win.
 
Reese Miller picked up the loss (3-1) for the Buffs, allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits with two walks and three strikeouts in the final 3.0 frames.
 
GAME TWO
The Buffs got on the scoreboard first in the nightcap as a Falcon fielding error plated Micklus and Camacho with no outs followed by a Noronha RBI single to score Kory Schmidt for the 3-0 lead. The Falcons cut into the lead in the home half of the first on a Carson Johnson RBI groundout that scored Jack Haggerty.
 
WT continued to stay hot at the plate in the second, plating three more runs Fesperman drew an RBI walk with the bases loaded followed by a Black two-run single to make it 6-1. UTPB answered again in the home half with a Taylor McDaniel RBI single that scored Clayton Coats followed by another RBI single from Pena in the bottom of the third to make it 6-3.
 
WT added to their lead in the fourth with a big six-run frame highlighted by a two-run single from Owen Alsup and a three-run homerun to left by Elijah Batista for the 12-3 lead. Permian cut into the lead again in the bottom of the sixth on a Perez double that plated McDaniel, WT added an insurance run in the top of the seventh on a Camacho RBI groundout to make it 13-4.
 
Justice Hayes picked up the win (2-0) for the Buffs, allowing two earned runs on six hits with no walks and three strikeouts in his 4.2 innings of relief.