CANYON, Texas – West Texas A&M's Julius Carpio propelled the Buffaloes to a Lone Star Conference victory over the Texas A&M-Kingsville Javelinas on Saturday afternoon at Wilder Park in Canyon, Texas.
 
The Buffs got on the board in the home half of the first inning as Ryan Camacho layed down a perfect squeeze bunt to score his twin brother Jovan for the 1-0 advantage. Kingsville answered in the top of the second as Jacob Cuevas singled to right with two outs to drive in Nick Reyes followed by a rundown that would score Damian Carreon for the 2-1 lead.
 
WT would tie the game in the bottom of the fourth inning on a Josh Zapata sac fly to left with one out to plate R. Camacho before Elijah Batista doubled off the left field wall to score Dylan Fesperman and Seth Ochoa for the 4-2 lead.
 
Fesperman extended the Buffalo lead in the bottom of the fifth inning with a two-run single to right field with two outs to make it 6-2. The Javelinas threatened in the top of the seventh inning as they loaded the bases with one out before Carpio forced a double-play ball to Batista at short to end the frame and keep it 6-2.
 
The Buffs added to their lead again in the home half of the seventh inning on a R. Camacho two-run homerun to left field for the 8-2 advantage. TAMUK used the long ball to cut into the lead in the top of the eighth inning on a three-run shot to left center by Elijia West to make it 8-5.
 
Kingsville wouldn't go down without a fight as they took advantage of a Buffalo fielding error with one out followed by a pair of base hits to cut the lead to 8-7 before a strikeout and a ground ball to end the game.
 
Carpio picked up the win (6-1) for the Buffs, allowing five earned runs on 10 hits with two walks and a career-high nine strikeouts in his 7.1 innings of work. Davis Luikart claimed his second save of the weekend, allowing two unearned runs on two hits with one walk and two strikeouts over the final frame.
 
The Buffs and Javelinas close out the weekend series tomorrow afternoon with first pitch set for 1:00 p.m. on Senior Day in Canyon.