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Some pitchers would be shaking in their spikes with the tying run on third base and two outs still left to record.

Not Ryan Jennings, which is why Smithson Valley puts him in such stressful situations.

The senior right-hander allowed Clemens’ first two batters to reach base in the bottom of the seventh inning Tuesday, and his run-scoring wild pitch made it a one-run game and put the tying run 90 feet away from home plate. But Jennings held steady, striking out the Buffaloes’ three- and four-hole hitters and then inducing a game-ending groundout as the visiting Rangers escaped with a 5-4 win.

“I love it,” Jennings said. “You feel it all the way through your body. It’s just a fun time.”

The second save of the season for Jennings, who also drove in the eventual winning run with a fourth-inning single up the middle, left Smithson Valley (13-6, 3-1 District 27-6A) and Clemens (10-7-1, 3-1) tied near the top of the league standings. New Braunfels was 3-0 heading into Tuesday’s game at East Central.

It was the first district loss since 2015 for the Buffaloes, No. 7 in the Express-News area rankings.

“It stings a lot,” Clemens designated hitter Erik Nunez said. “It’s going to bring fuel to us. Hopefully we come back stronger.”

The Buffs nearly came back from a pair of four-run deficits behind two RBIs from Nunez and a run-scoring double by Nick Hamel. But Jennings and Smithson Valley starter Garrett Egli, who allowed three runs and four hits with six strikeouts in five innings, made the leads hold up with the help of a defense that committed only one error.

The offense for the 10th-ranked Rangers surged to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning. They loaded the bases on a walk, single and fielding error.

Cade Galvan cleared them with a triple to left-center field. He then scored on a wild pitch.

“I knew I had to get some runners in,” Galvan said. “I was looking for something to hit and took it the other way.”

The Buffaloes got on the board in the bottom of the third on Nunez’s RBI groundout scoring Tyler Smith, who was hit by pitches three times Tuesday and has been plunked 10 times this season. But the Rangers went back up by four in the top of the fourth on Jennings’ single.

Clemens tried to rally again with two runs in the fifth and another in the seventh, but could not quite come all the way back.

“We just didn’t hit,” Hamel said. “We didn’t execute.”

adam.zuvanich@express-news.net

Twitter: @AZuvanich

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