The Angelina College Roadrunners on Thursday got exactly the kind of win they needed to snap a recent losing streak.
Starting and winning pitcher Baily Holstein threw six and a third strong innings, reliever Reid Garrett finished off the game in shutdown manner and the ‘Runners’bats pounded out 11 hits in a 7-3 win over Panola College in the series opener.
The series is scheduled to conclude on Saturday in Carthage.
Holstein bounced back from Panola’s Colby Price launching a solo homer on the first pitch of the game to hold the Ponies to just six hits the rest of his stint. Garrett entered and retired the Ponies in order in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
AC’s Mitch Henshaw and Mitchell Andrews rocked back-to-back solo homers in fifth, Nathan Miranda drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the same inning. Before that frame, Henshaw drove in a first-inning run with a single to score Daniel Lingua, Cort McPherson plated two – after Henshaw’s sacrifice bunt to set the table – with a single in the third and Lingua scored Dustin West with a sac fly in the fourth.
The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday. Starting time for the opener is 1 p.m.
Sports Information Director Gary Stallard, who also serves as a Liberal Arts Instructor, begins his eleventh season with Angelina College. Following a career as a U.S. Marine, Stallard completed his bachelor’s degree at Stephen F. Austin University, where he majored in English and Journalism. For more than 16 years, he has worked as a sports writer/columnist/photographer for the Lufkin Daily News; he continues to contribute free-lance articles on occasion. Stallard has won several awards for writing, including the Golden Hoops Award for basketball writing in 2003, Regional Sports Writer of the Year in 2004, and the Texas Press Association’s first-place award for column writing in 2007 and in 2014. He has also done basketball, football and baseball radio and live streaming play-by- play and color commentary for an ESPN affiliate. Currently Stallard serves as play-by-play broadcaster for AC basketball, baseball and softball games.
Prior to arriving at Angelina College, Stallard taught English at Lufkin High School for four years. He currently teaches Developmental Writing classes at AC. He and his wife Susan live in Lufkin.