CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M senior Kory Schmidt connected on long balls in his first two plate appearances on Thursday afternoon as the Buffaloes snapped a four-game losing skid with a 11-5 Lone Star Conference victory over the Texas A&M International Dustdevils at Jorge Haynes Field.
 
The Buffs wasted no time getting on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning as Schmidt lifted a three-run homer to left field with one out followed by Elijah Batista being hit by a pitch with the bases loaded later in the frame for the 4-0 lead.
 
Schmidt stayed hot at the plate in the top of the second with a two-run blast to straight away center to give the Buffs a 6-0 lead. The Buffs used the long ball again in the top of the fourth inning as Kyle Micklus jumped on the first pitch of the frame and took it over the right field wall for the 7-0 lead.
 
The Dustdevils got on the board in the home half of the sixth inning on an Omar Cervantes RBI groundout followed by an Isaac Stanwick base hit to make it 7-2. WT added to their lead again in the top of the seventh inning on a Micklus RBI double to left field followed by a Ryan Camacho single that plated Micklus for the 9-2 lead.
 
International responded in the bottom of the frame with long balls from Joseph Cruz and Abiam Medina to cut the advantage to 9-5. The Buffs added an insurance run in the top of the eight on a Batista sac fly to left that scored Dylan Fesperman at 10-5. WT extended their lead in the ninth on a Josh Zapata single to center with two outs to score Camacho for the 11-5 lead.
 
Matt Milner picked up the win (4-1) for the Buffs, allowing two earned runs on four hits with two walks and three strikeouts in his 5.2 innings of work.
 
The two teams return to the diamond tomorrow afternoon for a doubleheader starting at 1:00 p.m. in Laredo.