Eagles come up one run short in back-and-forth RRAC tournament opener

STERLINGTON, Louisiana — Friday's RRAC Baseball Championship opener started as a pitchers' duel but ended with a ton of fireworks. But when the smoke cleared, A&M-Texarkana fell just one run short in an 8-7 loss to LSU-Alexandria at the Sterlington Sports Complex.

Oscar Sanchez threw five scoreless innings before finally surrendering a run to the Generals (24-20). He would go on to throw 110 pitches in 7.1 innings with five strikeouts and six hits allowed. When he left the game, the Eagles had a 4-1 lead.

That lead manifested after Hunter Reid tied the game in the seventh with a single up the middle to score Masashi Takegama, who finished with three hits. Dakota Leopold gave the Eagles the lead with a two-run single in the eighth, and the Eagles (23-23) added another when Takegama scored on a passed ball.

The Generals chased Sanchez in the eighth with a pair of run-scoring singles to make it 4-3, and once Blake Taylor (1-5) entered, he immediately gave up a three-run homer that put LSUA in front. The Generals would go on to score seven runs in the inning.

But it still wasn't over. Trailing 8-4 in the ninth, Luke Hyzdu homered to left to make it 8-5 and Takegama later singled to bring home another. But with two runners on and two outs, the Eagles were unable to get another run to tie the game.

Hyzdu, Takegama, Dylan Simmons and Brandon Riley all had multi-hit games as the Eagles pounded out 11 hits in the contest.  Dakota Leopold drove in two runs and reached base twice. Reid also reached safely two times.

The Eagles will face either LSU-Shreveport or University of the Southwest on Saturday at 1 pm in an elimination game.