| Junior Greg Sillivent brought home the winning run in Friday's 6-4 victory. |
SAN ANTONIO ? Junior Greg Sillivent’s two-out single off the left field wall brought home junior Trent Lockwood with the winning run in the eighth and UTSA held on for a thrilling 6-4 victory against the College of Charleston on Friday at Wolff Stadium.
The Roadrunners improved to 5-9 with their eighth consecutive win at Wolff, while the Cougars saw their eight-game winning streak come to an end and fell to 12-2.
Lockwood led off the eighth with a liner to center off Charleston reliever Mike Lynn. After he moved to second on senior Ryan Saltzgaber’s sacrifice bunt, junior Zach Etheredge reached on an infield single that hit the third base bag and that put runners on the corners. Sillivent followed with his game-winning hit and sophomore James Keithley, who was 2-for-5 with three RBIs, drove in a pair of insurance runs later in the frame with a blooper to center to give UTSA an insurmountable 6-3 lead.
The Cougars made it interesting in the ninth by scoring a run with two down and then loading the bases off junior J.T. Mackey. However, senior Josh Blakely relieved Mackey after he threw two balls to Michael Harrington. The right-hander didn’t let the 2-0 count work against him, though, as he promptly evened the count with a pair of called strikes. After Harrington fouled off the next two pitches, Blakley got him to chase and ball in the dirt, giving him his first save of the season.
Mackey (2-1) picked up the victory, but the story of the game was senior starter Josh Ruffin. The right-hander held the nation’s second-highest scoring team (11.7 rpg) to just one run on five hits in seven strong innings. Ruffin struck out six and did not walk a batter in what was easily his best start of the year.
Lynn (0-1) took the loss for the Cougars, as he allowed all three eighth-inning runs on four hits in just two-thirds of an inning. Starter Nick Chigges gave up three runs on eight hits, walked two and struck out five in his seven innings of work.
Ben Lasater gave the College of Charleston an early 1-0 lead when he launched his third home run of the season with two down in the second.
The Roadrunners tied the game in the fifth, as Saltzgaber and Etheredge led off the inning with back-to-back singles and moved up a base when Sillivent laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt. Freshman Ryan Rummel, who was making his first collegiate start, then brought Saltzgaber home with the tying run when he hit a sharp grounder to shortstop.
UTSA took the lead the following inning when redshirt freshman Tim Palincsar led off with a walk, stole second and came home on Lockwood’s RBI single up the middle.
The Roadrunners pushed the lead to 3-1 in the seventh following Keithley's triple to right center that brough home Rummel with one out. However, the Cougars tied the game in the eighth with a pair of runs of freshman Zach Calhoon, who relieved Ruffin to start the inning.
UTSA rapped out 12 hits on the day, as five of the top six hitters in the order had a pair of safeties each.
The three-game series continues at 2 p.m. on Saturday.