For their season/home opener of the 2019 season, the Angelina College Roadrunners faced the third-ranked team in the nation in the McLennan College Highlanders.
Turns out the AC squad has a pretty good-looking ball club as well.
‘Runner starting pitcher Sean Bergeron tossed a complete-game shutout in the opener, and AC fought back to take an extra-inning win in the nightcap to sweep the Highlanders 3-0 and 6-5 Saturday at Roadrunner Field.
Bergeron proved dominant against the hard-hitting Highlanders, allowing just three hits and no runs while striking out 12 and issuing no walks.
Bergeron got ample run support from Trent Brown’s two-run single in the fourth inning and a Euro Diaz RBI double in the fifth.
In the nightcap, the Highlanders opened up a 3-0 lead, but AC’s Taylor Meaux and Drake Pierson hit back-to-back homers in the third inning to tie the score. Later, Rylan Meek – whose double in the opener set up the two-run fourth – scored Diaz with a single, and Brown gave the ‘Runners a 5-4 lead with a single to score JoJo Munoz.
The Highlanders sent the game into extra innings with a G Martin’s solo homer in the top of the 7th, but the Drew Shifflet – who allowed just one run in 4 2/3 innings in his collegiate debut – shut down McLennan in the top of the eighth. In the bottom half of the frame, Dillon Nesbit led off with a walk, stole second and moved to third on a Munoz sacrifice bunt. Nesbit then scored the walk-off run on a passed ball, leaving the Roadrunners with the opening-day sweep.
The Roadrunners travel to Waco to take on the Highlanders on Monday before returning home on Thursday against Houston Community College in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m. at Roadrunner Field.
The e-mail address for AC’s Sports Information Director is gstallard@angelina.edu.
