The Association of Independent Institutions Conference Baseball Championships finished nearly like they started for the University of Houston-Victoria Jaguars.

The Jaguars (23-31) lost only two games and both were to the Georgia Gwinnett Grizzlies and Tyler Carpenter. Carpenter blanked the Jaguars for 7.1 innings in the an 11-1 opening game victory and on Monday, he shut the Jaguars down again for seven innings in an 11-0 victory in the championship game of the A.I.I. tournament.

Despite the two losses, the Jaguars played well enough in between to earn the runner-up spot and an automatic qualifying berth into the NAIA Championships Opening Round set for May 12-15 at a site yet to be determined.

The Jaguars earned that berth earlier in the day when the defeated LSU-Alexander 4-1.

The Jaguars could muster very little offense against Carpenter and the Grizzlies as they had only one hit after the third inning, a one-out single by Robert Zaragoza. Zaragoza finished the game 2-for-4, while Kyle Bludau also picked up two hits going 2-for-4 with a double.

The Jaguars threatened twice early, but each time Carpenter was able to work out of the jams.

In the second the Jaguars left runners stranded at first and second after Carpenter was able to collect to big strikeouts to get out of that jam.

Then in the third, the Jaguars got runners to second and third with two outs, but Carpenter forced a ground ball to get out of that jam.

Meanwhile, the Grizzlies were banging out 13 hits against six UHV pitchers and opened up the game with a five-run eighth inning to take a 9-0 lead.

Tournament outstanding player Sloan Strickland did the most damage for the Grizzlies as he was 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and three RBI. Phillip Bates, who was named to the all-tournament team, went 3-for-6 with two runs and a double.

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