Texarkana, Texas- The Tigers took on the Texas A&M-Texarkana University Eagles in wild two-game series to start the season with plenty of offense, momentum swings, and late-inning drama, as both contests came down to the final frames.
In the opening game, Central Christian jumped out early, putting immediate pressure on the Eagles with an aggressive start at the plate. The Tigers built an early lead behind timely hitting and extra-base power, but Texas A&M–Texarkana responded quickly, answering with a big inning of their own to keep the game tight. From there, the two teams traded runs throughout the middle innings, with neither side able to fully pull away as offense continued to dominate the afternoon.
As the game moved into the later innings, the Tigers remained within striking distance, continuing to manufacture runs and keep the Eagles on edge. However, Texas A&M–Texarkana capitalized on late opportunities at the plate, pushing across the deciding run to narrowly edge Central Christian in walk-off fashion by the score of 14-13 . Despite the loss, the Tigers showed resilience offensively, collecting runs in multiple innings and forcing the Eagles to earn every out.
Game two followed a similar script but flipped the final result. The Tigers once again came out swinging, stringing together productive at-bats and building momentum early in the contest. Central Christian used a big inning to gain control, but the Eagles refused to fade, slowly chipping away and eventually overtaking the lead with a strong stretch in the middle-to-late innings.
Trailing 13-9 late , the Tigers responded in dramatic fashion scoring 8 runs in the 8th to reclaim the lead and swing momentum back in their favor. The Eagles mounted one last push in the final inning after another Tiger run in the 9th, scoring two runs to bring it down to the wire, but the Tigers held on for a crazy 16-15 win.
The Tigers begin the season 1-1 and will look to keep swinging the bat well in a 4 game series against Bryan College next weekend in Dayton, Tenn.
