KERRVILLE, Texas – The Celts of the University of St. Thomas began 2022 conference play with a win Friday as opened their three-game series at Schreiner with an 8-3 win over the Mountaineers.

 

UST (7-10) scored four runs in the top of the third inning and led by as many as six as the Celts claimed their fifth consecutive victory.

 

Erik Garza's two-RBI triple in the third and Tristan Pitkin's 2-run home run in the eighth were among the highlights for the Celts, who scored at least seven runs for the fifth consecutive game, a program first.

 

Starting pitcher Landon Murray pitched four shutout innings for the Celts, outdueling his starting counterpart Apollo Cassimatis, who pitched for innings for Schreiner and gave up four runs, all unearned.

 

The Celts opened the scoring in the third inning when Leo Galvan reached base on a two-out error, allowing Cameron McClure to score from third base. The error proved even more costly for the Mountaineers (8-7, 0-1 SCAC) when Garza tripled home Pitkin and Galvan on the very next at-bat. Noah Martinez capped the inning with an RBI single to score Garza.

 

McClure and Jason Brown added RBIs in the sixth and seventh innings, respectively to stretch the St. Thomas lead to 6-0.

 

Schreiner responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the seventh, with two of those runs scoring on Devin Hooper's triple.

 

In the eighth, the Celts again pulled away from their guests thanks to Pitkin's one-out, two-run home run.

 

The Celts and Mountaineers conclude their Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference series Saturday with a doubleheader. First pitch in game one is scheduled for noon.