| Freshman Amber Anderson's one-out single in the 11th gave UTSA a series victory on Sunday. |
SAN ANTONIO ? Freshman Amber Anderson singled home junior Rudi Cantu from third base with the winning run in the bottom of the 11th inning to lift UTSA to a 3-2 victory over Nicholls on Sunday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
With the win, the Roadrunners improved to 20-18 overall and 13-8 in Southland Conference play in winning their 12th league series in the past 14 tries. The Colonels fell to 26-13 and 12-6.
Playing the second consecutive extra-inning affair, UTSA and Nicholls battled through four extra frames before the final outcome was decided. With the game knotted at 2-all and the international tiebreaker rule in place, Cantu was placed at second base to begin the bottom half of the 11th. Freshman Ashley Kappler laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance her to third and Anderson came through with the clutch base hit, grounding a 1-2 pitch up the middle for her second hit of the game.
Cantu and junior Krista Sitka joined Anderson with two hits apiece at the plate, while junior Kelly Cato recorded the other RBI for the Roadrunners.
In the circle, three UTSA pitchers combined to keep the Nicholls bats at bay. Freshman Morgan Luksa got the start and allowed just one earned run on two hits in four innings. Sophomore Emily Humpal tossed a pair of scoreless frames before sophomore Danye Holmes entered in the seventh. The Sugar Land native ran her record to 7-7 on the season, striking out six and surrendering just one unearned run on three hits in five innings of work.
Nicholls grabbed the initial lead on an RBI-single by Megan Gaspard in the top of the fifth.
The Roadrunners tied things up in the sixth on a bases-loaded sac fly by Cato that plated pinch runner freshman Kristin Wehmeyer.
The Colonels appeared to grab the upper hand in the top of the ninth, as Haley Burkett singled to left center and scored all the way from first base on a two-out throwing error by the Roadrunners off the bat of Gaspard.
However, UTSA forced more extra frames with a run in the bottom of the ninth. Cantu led off with an infield single and moved to second on a sac bunt by Ashley Kappler. Senior Leanne Risberg then legged out an infield single to second base on which the throw to first sailed into the Nicholls dugout, plating Cantu with the tying run.
Lacey Gros (13-9) worked all 10.1 innings for Nicholls, allowing one earned run on nine hits and registering 10 punchouts.
The Roadrunners return to action next Friday-Saturday, April 10-11, when they travel to San Marcos for a three-game league series at Texas State.