| Junior Tyler Carpenter had his first three-hit game of the season on Saturday. |
SAN ANTONIO — SSam Houston State scored two runs in the eighth to go in front for good and the Bearkats sent UTSA to its fifth consecutive loss with an 9-6 victory on Saturday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
Sam Houston (10-13, 5-3 SLC) won its fifth contest in a row, while the Birds saw their season record fall to 9-12 overall and 1-7 in league play.
Consecutive one-out singles by Jared Wondra and Greg Olson in the deciding inning put runners on the corners for Ryan Mooney. The Bearkats shortstop hit a sharp grounder to UTSA junior second baseman Ryan Hutson on the first offering he saw from junior right-hander Kevin Clarke, but Hutson couldn't come up with it and that brought home Wondra with what turned out to be the game-winning run. Doug Oney followed with a run-scoring single to left to extend the lead to two and Daniel Nottebart added an RBI single in the ninth for the final margin.
Matt Shelton improved to 5-2 with three scoreless innings in relief of starter Paul Spinn. The right-hander allowed just three singles and struck out two in the 54-pitch outing (34 strikes).
Roadrunners southpaw starter Matt Crocker (2-3) dropped his third straight decision. The Kingwood native surrendered eight runs (seven earned) on a dozen hits and fanned seven in 7.1 frames.
Sam Houston State opened up the scoring in the first when Taylor Davis plated Braeden Riley with a two-out single to left center.
The Roadrunners answered with a four-spot on a quartet of hits and a costly Bearkats error an inning later.
Junior Brett Aguilar reached base to lead off the frame when Riley couldn't handle his slow roller to second. Senior Lance Brown blooped a single to right two hitters later and senior Jeff Taliaferro stroked a sharp grounder up the middle with two down, which brought home Aguilar with the tying run. Junior Tyler Carpenter followed with a two-run triple down the left-field line and sophomore Casey Selsor closed out the scoring with an RBI double to left center.
The Bearkats went back in front with a four-run fifth.
Oney got the rally started with a one-out walk, which was Crocker's lone free pass of the day, and Jessie Plumlee followed with a single to right center. Riley then lined a run-scoring single through the right side of the infield to pull the Bearkats within two and Mark Hudson launched a three-run home run to left center one batter later for his team-leading fifth long ball of the spring.
UTSA tied it up on Hutson's two-out RBI single up the middle in the bottom of the inning and it went ahead once again in the sixth when freshman Ryan Dalton crossed the plate on a fielder's choice grounder to second off the bat of fellow first-year player Jake Wood.
Hudson left the park again, this time with two down in the seventh, and his solo shot tied the game at six.
Both he and Riley went 4-for-5 to lead Sam Houston State on offense.
Carpenter led the Roadrunners with his 3-for-5, two-RBI effort at the plate.
The series wraps up at 1 p.m. on Sunday.