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LUBBOCK - A rough defensive outing Sunday has Temple College on the brink of elimination after the first round of the NJCAA Region V Tournament at Lubbock Christian.

The Leopards (31-24) gave up an eight-run fourth inning and fell 13-5 to Clarendon (36-14), dropping Temple into an elimination game at 1 p.m. today against No. 7 New Mexico, which lost to Weatherford 11-1.

“It was just a combination of things,” Temple coach Craig McMurtry said. “We don’t make a couple of plays to get out of an inning and then we leave a couple of pitches up. With the wind blowing out, we made a mistake with a pitch. Just a lot of things that can’t happen happened. We had four errors in the game and all four were costly.”

In the Bulldogs’ decisive fourth inning, Francisco Rosario started the inning with a bunt single off Leopards starter Daniel Meadows before Chandler Goode’s hit-and-run single put runners on first and third.

Miquel Rivera singled to left, bringing home Rosario to give Clarendon a 4-1 lead. With the bases loaded, a Bulldogs batter looped a pop fly over second base that popped out of Temple second baseman Nick Anders’ glove to score another run.

Hunter Scott relieved Meadows and recorded a strikeout for the second out. Then, Scott gave up a two-run single, walked a batter and threw a wild pitch to push the lead to 8-1.

Rosario, who led off the inning, belted a three-run home run that capped the eight-run inning for an 11-1 lead.

Tristan Gaines will start today for the Leopards.

“We’ve got a lot of keys tomorrow,” McMurtry said. “We have to play pretty solid all the way round or else we’ll be going home.

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