No. 20 A&M-Victoria baseball extends winning streak against Wiley

A strong pitching performance by Jonathan Jones helped set the table for the Texas A&M University-Victoria baseball team on Friday.

The senior hurled a four-hit gem to help the No. 20-ranked Jaguars earn a 5-2 win over Wiley University in the series-opener at Riverside Stadium for the team's third consecutive win.

A&M-Victoria (3-1) had to be patient, being held scoreless through the first three innings.

"We hit the crap out of the ball right at people," said head coach Jonathan Stavinoha. "Sometimes that's baseball. … You hit enough baseball's 100 MPH right at people, eventually, they're going to fall. Then, sure enough, they started falling like we wanted."

But it was Jones' work on the mound that put the Jaguars in position to win again, as the Manvel native struck out seven batters.

After allowing a leadoff double and a two-out walk in the top of the first, Jones settled in to retire six of the next seven batters he faced. The senior right-hander finished the game allowing just four hits and two walks in his six innings of work to earn his first win of the season and improve to 1-1.

"It's a good feeling to know you can go out there and put your team in a position to succeed and they do the same," Jones said. "They give you a chance and that's all you can ask for as a pitcher."

A&M-Victoria had a scoreless inning of relief by Matthew Mejia, who also picked up his first strikeout of the season. Constendinos Demetriou followed that with two innings of relief in which he let up one earned run on two hits with a pair of strikeouts.

The Jaguars were shutout in the first inning for the first time this season, but the offense continued to be patient.

The patience paid off in the fourth inning when Jose Montanez opened the scoring with an RBI single to center field before Garrett Smith delivered a two-run RBI two batters later to go up 3-0.

RBIs from Antonio Benitez and Connor Kaiser in the seventh capped the scoring for A&M-Victoria. Kaiser and Robby Olguin had the lone multi-hit performances for the Jaguars as they scattered six hits against the Wildcats (0-3).

"We've got a lineup, one through nine can all swing it and do damage," Smith said. "Everyone knows there's no doubt about it. So, we just kinda were talking about waiting for our pitches, don't expand the zone, find something to hit and don't miss. That's exactly what we did."

The Jaguars will look for a series win and sweep against the Wildcats with a 3 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday at Riverside Stadium.