Wyatt’s grand slam earns Aggies 9-8 baseball win

Cameron’s baseball team hasn’t gotten off to a great start but Tuesday the Aggies got a clutch effort from several players including Wyatt Grant who crushed a grand slam and lifted CU to a 9-8 walk-off win over long-time rival Southwestern Oklahoma State University at chilly McCord Field.

The Aggies climbed to 8-21 and the clutch comeback effort should give them a boost of energy heading into their next Lone Star Conference series Thursday at UT-Permian Basin.

Gabe Clyden started the deciding ninth inning with as single and Donovan Borg was hit by a pitch to put two runners on base. Lance Barnett proceeded to get a single to load the bags and set the stage for the late heroics.

After the Bulldogs got a strikeout for the first out, Grant stepped in and got the pitch he wanted, a 1-1 fastball and smacked it over the fence in left as his teammates came out of the dugout to join the huge celebration at home.

The Bulldogs dominated early, taking a 4-0 lead after four innings before the Aggies started to claw back in the game in the bottom of the fifth. Elijah Tolsma started that rally with a double and Kai Hershberg came on to pinch run and he immediately moved to third on a fly ball out, but was then thrown out trying to score on a ground ball.

Clyden kept that rally going with a walk before Borg ripped a RBI double. Kody Bigford later brought home the second run with a single as the Aggies had cut the Southwestern lead in half.

Southwestern added a run in its half of the sixth but the Aggies were up to the challenge in the bottom of that frame. Spencer Simpson singled to start the rally and Hershberger quickly got two runs home with the first CU homer of the game.

The Bulldogs changed pitchers but it didn’t matter as Riley Hines doubled and later scored on a Borg single as the Aggies had gotten even.

Once again, the visitors from Weatherford regained the lead by scoring three in the top of the seventh to push their lead to 8-5 and set the stage for the late CU heroics.

After the spring break layoff, CU coach Kyle Williams went into the game wanting to get his pitchers some work and he wound up using 10 on the mound, the last being Garrett Klein who worked two innings without allowing a hit to get the win and run his record to 2-1.