MONROE, La. — UTSA pushed across six runs in the eighth inning and it rallied for a 14-10 victory at Louisiana-Monroe on Sunday. The Roadrunners' second consecutive win salvaged a split of this weekend's season-opening four-game series.
Seven of UTSA's season-high 19 hits went for extra bases, including a pair of solo home runs by sophomores Ryan Dalton and Daniel Rockett.
Freshman Riley Good went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and tied the program record with four stolen bases, three of which came in the first inning. Rockett also was 3-for-5 with a triple, a fourth-inning homer and three RBIs and Dalton added three hits and his second long ball of the spring.
The Birds lit up the scoreboard first for the fourth game in a row.
Good led the contest with a infield single and promptly swiped second and third base. Rockett then drew a walk and he and Good combined for a successful double steal to put UTSA (2-2) in front early.
The Roadrunners tacked on another run the following inning when Good's single through the right side plated freshman Mike Warren.
The Warhawks (2-2) responded with three runs in the bottom of the frame on a pair of run-scoring doubles and a sacrifice fly.
UTSA reclaimed the lead with a two-run third.
Junior Casey Selsor was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and Warren followed with a walk.
Rockett's solo home run with one down in the fourth extended the edge to two (5-3), but ULM answered with a six-spot in the bottom of the inning, sending 11 batters to the plate while taking advantage of three Roadrunners errors.
Trailing 9-5, UTSA immediately began to chip away one stanza later.
Selsor drove in junior Matthew James, who lined a lead-off double into the right field corner, with a single and Good brought home Selsor three batters later with a sacrifice fly.
A sixth-inning wild pitch by Randy Ziegler plated senior Tyler Carpenter and the Roadrunners were within one at 9-8.
The Warhawks added an insurance run in the seventh on Judd Edwards' sacrifice fly and that set the stage for UTSA's biggest inning of the young season.
After Dalton started the rally with a solo shot to left, the Birds sent nine more batters to the plate and received a run-scoring safety-squeeze from redshirt freshman RJ Perucki, a two-run triple off the bat of Rockett and a two-out RBI double from Carpenter to go in front by four.
Louisiana-Monroe threatened one more time in the nitnth by putting runners on the corners, but senior closer Zach Calhoon came in for the first time in more than 21 months and struck out pinch hitter Joey Cesario on three pitches to earn his first save since April 26, 2009. The Southland Conference's all-time leader now has 26 during his four-year career.
Junior reliever Cody Scott (1-1) struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings of relief to pick up the win, while Wil Browning (1-1) was tagged with the loss after allowing the six eighth-inning runs on seven hits.
UTSA returns to action next weekend when it hosts Saint Joseph's (2-2) in a four-game series at Wolff Stadium. The opener is slated for 6 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 25.
