Santana, Stubblefield lead Strykers comeback

THE WOODLANDS, Texas – Texas Collegiate League baseball’s leading homerun hitter picked a perfect time to add to his total.

Slugger Kevin Santana (2-4, 4 RBI) belted his fourth homer of the season, a three-run blast that highlighted a five-run eighth inning, as the Woodlands Strykers completed a two-game sweep of the league-leading Brazos Valley Bombers with an 11-10 come-from-behind win on Wednesday at Strykers Stadium.

Dirk Masters homered and doubled. His third-inning two-run shot sparking a four-run inning that gave the Strykers a 5-2 lead.

Strykers closer Gandy Stubblefield worked a perfect ninth inning to pick up his second save in two days and fourth of the season. Stubblefield was perfect on Tuesday and equaled that performance on Wednesday, allowing the Strykers to sweep a Brazos Valley team that came into the two-game series with a record of 15-1.

The Strykers equalled their longest win streak (2) of the season and improve to 6-11 for the 2013 summer season. They will embark on a four-game road trip with games on Thursday and Friday at the Texas Marshals and Saturday and Sunday games at the East Texas Pump Jacks.

The Strykers return home for Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25-26, games with the Acadiana Cane Cutters.

Landon Merka (3-5, 2 RBI, 2 R) scored the first run of the game on a single by Ricky Sanchez (2-5, 2 RBI). Merka tripled to start the third-inning surge. Sanchez drove in another run before Masters swatted his first homer of the season.

The Bombers came back with two runs in the fourth inning before taking a 6-5 lead in sixth. The league’s top team made it 7-5 with a run in the seventh and a three-run homer in the eighth inning by Hunter Melton made it a 10-6 hole for the Strykers.

But the home team rallied for a pair of runs, setting up the dramatic game-winning homer from Santana and the Strykers slammed the door in the ninth with Stubblefield lowering his ERA to 0.95.

In six appearances this season, the Lufkin High School graduate has allowed just one run. Having just completed his sophomore season at Texas A&M, Stubblefield (6-3, 205, righty) was a 14th round pick by the Houston Astros in the 2011 Draft.

Conner Fikes improved on his TCL-leading .388 batting average with a 2-for-5 day, scoring twice and driving in a run. Dalton Perry also contributed three hits and scored a run.