Kubo's Strong Start Sets the Tone in 'Jacks' 3-0 Victory at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

Saturday, April 20

Corpus Christi, Texas

1:00 p.m.

Stephen F. Austin

18-22, 0

Texas A&M - Corpus Christi

25-18, 0

Stephen F. Austin

A&M-Corpus Christi

Photo by: SFA Athletics

Kubo's Strong Start Sets the Tone in 'Jacks' 3-0 Victory at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

4/20/2019 5:01:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

Senior righty helps SFA claim first Southland series win in over one month

By: Charlie Hurley | Director of Athletic Media Relations

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - After being prevented from securing a Southland Conference series win in each of its last three league series, the SFA baseball team was able to do so Saturday afternoon by becoming just the second squad in 2019 to hand one of the nation's best hitting teams a shutout loss.

Making his first Southland Conference start of the season, senior right-hander Trayson Kubo turned in his best pitching performance of the season so far by working six shutout innings before turning things over to the 'Jacks' bullpen who finished things off to help SFA claim a 3-0 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

With its shutout win, the 'Jacks tied the program record for most Southland Conference shutout wins in a single season. In order to do so, the 'Jacks' pitching staff found a way to shut down the Southland's leader in hits, batting average and runs scored.

SCORING SUMMARY
T1 | No Lumberjack pitcher tossed balls and strikes without the benefit of a lead thanks to some early offense by the visitors. Freshman outfielder Brandon Uhse started things off with a one-out single up the middle and moved to second on a groudout by Manny Vasquez. From there, Sean Moore handed SFA a lead it wouldn't relinquish by dropping a bloop single into shallow right field to score Uhse. Although Moore got thrown out at second to end the inning, his hit was enough to give SFA a 1-0 lead.

T6 | SFA doubled its lead once the Islanders went to the bullpen for left-hander A.J. Ayala. With two outs already on the board, junior Josh Campbell pushed a 3-1 offering from the southpaw up the middle before Jake Georgiades started his multi-hit day. The senior roped an RBI double to the gap in left-center that drove Campbell home and increased SFA's lead to 2-0.

T9 | Thanks to the Islanders' third and final error of the game, the 'Jacks were able to add an important insurance run before all was said and done. Georgiades led off the frame with an infield single before moving to second on a sacrifice bunt from Jarrod Huber. Antonio Lima pushed Georgiades to third. With two outs, Daley sent a grounder to shortstop that was misplayed, allowing Georgiades to score and make matters 3-0.

AT THE DISH
• Georgiades finished the day as the only SFA player to notch a multi-hit performance. The senior went 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored to help the 'Jacks' lock down their first Southland Conference series win in a little over one month.
• Moore (1-for-4) added another of SFA's eight hits and got credit for his team-leading 25th RBI in the process.
• Nick Anderson was the only Islander to put forth a multi-hit effort, going 2-for-3 with a walk.
• SFA out-hit Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 8-5.

ON THE HILL
• For the first time this season, Kubo (1-1) worked his way into the win column by firing six innings of four-hit shutout baseball. The senior struck out three, walked one and had one hit-by-pitch in his first win of the season.
• Jeremy Rodriguez, Tyler Starks and Jesus Gamez logged the final three innings of work and combined to give up just one hit and one walk while striking out a pair.
• With his appearance in the bottom of the ninth, Starks tied former 'Jack Richard Folmer for the most appearances in program history. Both Starks and Folmer have 96 appearances to sit atop the program leaderboard in that category.
• Though he gave up just a single run, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi starter Leo Perez (1-2) was tagged with his second loss of the season. Perez worked five frames and gave up four hits, a walk and hit two batters. In all, he surrendered just one run and struck out three.

ON DECK
• A busy five-game week awaits the 'Jacks once Easter Sunday is in the books. SFA starts its five-game week with a non-conference road trip to Waco, Texas, for a Tuesday evening tilt with Baylor. First pitch between the 'Jacks and Bears is set for 6:35 p.m.

CARDENAS COMMENTS
On the start by Trayson Kubo | "We talked to Trayson last week and met with him face-to-face. We told him that with [Jaxon] Covington being a little banged up that it was going to be his opportunity to get out there and pitch. We weren't going to pitch him unless he could look us in the eye and guarantee us that he would mentally handle the stresses of being a member of our regular weekend rotation. From there he said, 'I want the ball,' and the effort that we got from him today - if we get that kind of effort from him consistently he's going to be very tough to beat."
On making the most out of some limited opportunities on offense | "We can't take at-bats off. We don't have the kind of offense where we can just sit around and wait for someone to hit a three-run home run. Because of that, everybody has to give us everything they have during every at-bat. I think our team did a great job of that today by maintaining what we do, playing defense and then turning things over to our bullpen which was lights out.
On how this sets the table for a busy week ahead | "We have to make sure our guys stay in shape, monitor the number of innings guys throw through the week and make sure we prepare for a really, really important weekend. That way, we'll be able to make a hard push for this last half of conference action.

-SFA-