| Senior Michael Rockett not only extended his hitting streak to 17 games, but he also became the program's single-season hit king on Thursday night. |
SAN ANTONIO ? UTSA capped off a wild night at Roadrunner Field with two runs in the ninth and rallied for a 15-14 victory against Central Arkansas on Thursday in the opener of a weekend three-game Southland Conference series.
After the Bears scored four unearned runs with two outs in their half of the ninth, the Birds (30-22, 19-12 SLC) were down to their final out when senior All-American Michael Rockett chopped a single up the middle to start the final-inning rally. Sophomore Brett Aguilar followed with a base hit through the box, which moved Rockett up to third. A passed ball by Beau Geren brought home Rockett with the tying run and sophomore Ryan Hutson finished off the game-winning rally with a single to left center that plated pinch runner Tyler Carpenter.
That made a winner out of sophomore southpaw Matt Crocker (5-1) despite giving up seven runs (two earned) in 2.1 innings of work.
It was a back-and-forth affair that saw UTSA take an early 8-4 lead with three runs in each of the first two frames and a two-spot in the third.
Central Arkansas (19-28, 10-20 SLC) began a stretch of 10 runs over the final four innings with a run in the sixth and two more a stanza later to pull within one at 8-7.
However, the Roadrunners pushed four runners across the plate following the seventh-inning stretch to extend the advantage to five, but the Bears continued to edge closer, this time with three runs in the eighth.
After UTSA put up an insurance run in the eighth to go up 12-10, UCA took advantage of a pair of dropped popout by Hutson with two down in the final frame and the Bears got an RBI single Josh Huffman and a three-run homer from Graham Martin, his second of the night, to take a one-run lead heading into the bottom of the ninth.
Jeremy Brewer (1-1), who gave up both of UTSA's ninth-inning runs (one earned), was saddled with the loss.
The Roadrunners continued their recent offensive onslaught, scoring in double figures for the fifth time in the last eight games (19th time this season), and every starter on offense had at least one hit.
Junior Lance Brown led the way by going 4-for-4 with a double, triple and three runs scored, while Aguilar and Hutson stroked three hits apiece, including their fourth and team-leading 15th homers, respectively, of the year. Freshman Jason Mohn also went deep for the eighth time this spring. Meanwhile, Rockett, who started his program-leading 214th all-time game, extended his hitting streak to 17 games and his two hits pushed his season total to 93, giving him yet another school record.
Martin was 3-for-6 with six RBIs and Dillon Smith also delivered two homers for Central Arkansas and finished the night with four hits and three RBIs.
The series continues at 6 p.m. on Friday when senior lefty Kris Ruepke (2-5, 8.58 ERA) takes on right-hander Jeremy Cloud (4-6, 4.87).