HOUSTON — The St. Thomas Celts avoided the three-game sweep against the Southwestern baseball team, defeating the Pirates 4-3 in extra innings. 

Southwestern struck first, scoring a pair of runs in the top of the third inning. After a pitch hit James Vaquero, Alexander Cannata drove him in with an RBI double down the left-field line. 

Then, Trent Raschke reached on a fielding error, putting runners on the corners. Ted Lobkowicz followed with a sacrifice bunt, scoring Cannata. 

Lobkowicz added another RBI in the fifth inning, delivering a single to center field to score Vaquero, who was hit by a pitch for a second time. 

St. Thomas broke through against Southwestern starting pitcher Carson Brown in the bottom of the sixth inning. Brown walked Tristan Pitkin to start the inning. Then, after Israel Fields popped out to shortstop, Leo Galvan singled up the middle putting runners on the corners. After Galvan stole second, Aeneas Enriquez hit an RBI single through the right side. 

Ty Elder replaced Brown on the mound and picked off Galvan at second, but Galvan scored on the play. Elder struck out Simmons to end the inning. Brown pitched 5.1 innings, striking out six with two runs surrendered on five hits and three walks. 

Ryan Corbett replaced Elder in the seventh and pitched three innings, getting replaced by Gregory Ferguson in the 10th after surrendering a two-out triple to Knight Newcomb. Austin Schwarz followed with the walk-off single to second base. 

St. Thomas starting pitcher Chris Parsons went nine innings, striking out 14 with three runs surrendered on five hits. Brandon Madden pitched the 10th inning, walking one and earning the win. 

After the loss, Southwestern drops to 15-15 with a 7-8 conference record. The Pirates will host the University of Texas at Dallas Comets on Tuesday, then travel to play Centenary next weekend.