| Junior Tyler Carpenter had his second three-hit game in as many days on Sunday. |
SAN ANTONIO — Sam Houston State plated a pair of runs in the eighth inning and it finished off a weekend sweep of UTSA with an 8-6 victory on Sunday afternoon at Roadrunner Field. The triumph was the 1,000th of head coach Mark Johnson's 25-year career.
The Bearkats (11-13, 6-3 SLC) won their sixth game in a row, while the Birds dropped their sixth straight in falling to 9-13 overall and 1-8 in league play. UTSA now has lost 13 of its last 17 outings after beginning the year with a school-record five consecutive victories and the Roadrunners are off to the worst start in the program's 18-year affiliation with the Southland Conference.
Doug Oney started the eighth-inning rally with a lead-off single to right center. After he was moved to second on a Jessie Plumlee sacrifice bunt, Braeden Riley drove him home with a double that was just inside the first-base bag. Taylor Davis followed with a run-scoring single two hitters later and the cushion was more than enough to secure the victory for Sam Houston.
Brandon Kimbrel (2-0) held UTSA scoreless over the final 2.2 innings to pick up the win. He allowed two hits, walked one and struck out a batter in the 45-pitch relief outing. Southpaw starter Brent Powers went the first 6.1 innings and he whiffed a career-best 10 hitters against no walks.
Junior right-hander Mike Pierce (0-3), who surrendered the final two runs of the contest, was saddled with the loss. The Kingwood native gave up five hits, walked a pair and fanned four in his four frames of work.
The Bearkats jumped out to a 3-0 lead before UTSA had a chance to get to the plate.
The first three hitters of the game got singles off Roadrunners left-handed starter D.D. Towler. Mark Hudson's run-scoring base hit plated Plumlee and a Davis sacrifice fly to right brought home Riley with the second run of the panel. Hudson then came home on a successful double steal for the inning's final tally. UTSA now has been outscored 23-6 in the opening frame this spring.
Senior Ryan Rummel's two-run home run to left with two down in the third cut the deficit to one and, after Sam Houston scored an unearned run in the next stanza, the Birds took their first lead of the day with a four-run fifth.
Freshman Daniel Rockett led off the inning with a double down the left-field line and a base hit by junior Tyler Carpenter two hitters later put runners on the corners with one out. Senior Lance Brown followed with a sharp grounder up the middle that took a bad hop off Riley's shoulder for a run-scoring double. Consecutive singles through the left side of the infield by junior Ryan Hutson and freshman Ryan Dalton put UTSA in front, 6-4.
However, that would be it for the Roadrunners the rest of the way and Sam Houston State took advantage with a pair in the sixth and two more in the eighth, putting the Birds on the wrong end of a conference sweep for the first time in almost a half dozen seasons (at UT Arlington/May 20-22, 2004).
Chris Andreas, Ryan Mooney, Oney and Riley all had two hits for the Bearkats.
Carpenter, meanwhile, posted his second three-hit contest in as many days to pace UTSA's offense. Dalton and Rockett added two apiece.
The Birds begin a five-game road trip on Tuesday night when they head to the Bayou City to take on Houston (12-10). First pitch is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at Cougar Field. The two teams have split their last six meetings dating back to the 2007 campaign.