As the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals got the MLB World Series underway last week, the Lions baseball team got their version of the Fall World Series underway too, wrapping up fall practices.

The Lions split their 37 man roster into two teams, the Green team and the Gold team, to play a three game series with games on Wednesday, Thursday and a final match on Saturday prior to the Lions win over Texas State on the gridiron. The Gold team featured returning players in: catcher Jacob Fisher, right-handed pitcher Josh Janway and right-handed pitcher Stefan Lopez, while the Green team featured key returning letter winners: catcher Torin Lucas, third baseman Jonathan Pace and second baseman Brock Hebert.

The Gold team took the first two days with consecutive victories over their teammates. Wednesday’s game went 10 innings, as the Gold team earned the 3-2 victory. The Green team jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a solo homer from sophomore first baseman Britt Gautreaux. Right-hander Josh Janway pitched three scoreless innings for the Gold team, earning the win over Green pitcher Brennen Marque.

In Thursday’s match, the Gold team used more stellar pitching as Kaleb Manuel threw five scoreless innings on the hill, claiming the win in the 6-1 victory.

“The pitching did a really good job locating the fastball on both sides of the plate,” said Lions head coach Jay Artigues, entering his sixth season as head coach. “Everyone who went out there did a really good job.”

With the series already intact the Green team managed to avoid the series sweep on Saturday with a 1-0 win in the final game of the Fall World Series. Gautreaux had two hits for the Green team with one being a single driving in junior transfer Harry Slade for the only run of the evening.

“The new guys stepped in and really competed well,” said Artigues. “We had a lot of new faces out there, and it’s important that we keep improving.”

The Lions open the 2012 season on Feb. 17 at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field versus Indiana State.