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| Senior Trent Lockwood finished the SLC Tournament with three home runs and eight RBIs. |
HUNTSVILLE ? Texas A&M-Corpus Christi brought back a pair of would-be two-run homers, the second of which came with two down in the ninth inning, and the Islanders defeated UTSA for the second time in three days with a 12-10 victory on Friday afternoon in the third day of the Southland Conference Tournament.
The top-seeded Roadrunners (39-19) were eliminated from the tournament with the loss and now await word from the NCAA Baseball Selection Committee on Monday to see if their season will continue in NCAA Regional play as an at-large choice. The Islanders advanced into the day's 7 p.m. game against Sam Houston State.
Trailing by a half dozen runs heading into the final frame, UTSA nearly pulled off a comeback for the ages.
Junior James Keithley got things going with a single up the middle and sophomore Tim Palincsar followed with a walk. That chased Brett Gibson, who tossed 4.1 innings, from the game in favor of right-handed side-armer Bryant Sparkman.
After junior Michael Rockett hit into a fielder's choice at third base, senior Trent Lockwood hit a towering fly ball to right center field that was hauled in at the warning track by Chase Williams. Junior Aaron Powell and Ryan Rummel then stroked consecutive RBI singles to cut the lead to four. Sophomore Tyler Carpenter followed with a double to right center to bring home Powell and Rummel and the margin was cut in half.
That brought up senior Zach Etheredge with the tying run and the Boerne native took Bryant Sparkman's 2-1 pitch deep to left field for what appeared to be the game-tying homer, but Jonathan Reyes capped an outstanding afternoon by leaping over the fence and came down with the contest's final out.
A&M-Corpus Christi built its large lead on the strength of three runs in the fifth, one in the seventh and four in the eighth.
With the Birds leading 6-4 following a Keithley two-out, two-run homer in the fourth, the Islanders touched left-handed reliever Kris Rupeke for a pair of homers in the fifth to take the lead for good. Martin Parra launched a solo shot with one down and Reyes followed with a two-run shot three batters later to put Corpus up, 7-6. The two-out bomb was the first of his three-year career.
UTSA appeared to retake the lead in the bottom of the stanza. Rockett led off with a single to left and Lockwood, who hit a two-run homer in the first and a sacrifice fly in the third, drilled Roy Ferdin's first pitch to right center and there was little doubt the ball would clear the fence, but Williams' perfectly-timed jump allowed him to snag the ball for the first out of the inning and keep the momentum on the side of the Islanders.
A&M-Corpus Christi pushed the edge to 8-6 two innings later when a Reyes single through the left side allowed Brycen Bell, who doubled off Ruepke with two down, to cross the plate.
Williams jump started the four-run eighth when he led off with his seventh homer of the season. A sharp grounder by Chase Wheaton with one down got through the legs of second baseman Ryan Hutson and rolled all the way to the wall and Wheaton ended up on third base. UTSA head coach Sherman Corbett then made his second call to the bullpen, this time to junior right-hander J.P. Holton.
Holton got Trey Hernandez to fly out to center for the second out, but Parra then hit an infield single to Keithley to plate Wheaton and Ernie Olivarez followed with his third long ball of the season to push the advantage to 12-6.
Gibson allowed just a pair of runs on five hits and struck out five in picking up his fourth win of the year against three losses.
Ruepke (6-3), who came back just one day after starting Thursday's elimination contest against Northwestern State, gave up five runs on seven hits and fanned three in four innings of work. It was his first loss since March 17 against No. 10 Texas.
Roadrunners right-handed starter Ryan Proudfoot was unable to get past the third inning in arguably his most important start of the season. The Lindale native labored through 2.2 innings, surrendering three runs on three hits while walking six.
Palincsar went 3-for-4 with three runs scored and Carpenter was a perfect 2-for-2 with a pair of RBIs and a stolen base after pinch running for junior Jose Hernandez in the sixth.
Day 3 scoreboard
#7 Southeastern Louisiana 9, #3 Texas State 8 (Texas State eliminated)
#8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 12, #1 UTSA 10 (UTSA eliminated)
#7 Southeastern Louisiana 17, #2 Lamar 1 (7 innings)
#4 Sam Houston State 7, #8 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 5 (Texas A&M-Corpus Christi)
Saturday's schedule
#7 Southeastern Louisiana vs. #2 Lamar, noon
Southeastern Louisiana/Lamar winner vs. #4 Sam Houston State, 45 minutes after