SAN ANTONIO — Junior Matthew James hit a two-run walk-off home run with two outs in the 10th inning to propel UTSA to a 9-8 victory against Lamar on Friday at Roadrunner Field.
James turned around a first-pitch fastball from reliever Machon Trimm (2-2) to give the Roadrunners their first extra-inning victory of the season. It also marked the seventh win in the last nine games for UTSA (18-22, 10-10 SLC).
UTSA trailed 7-5 heading into the bottom of the ninth inning but a two-run single by sophomore Ryan Dalton with one out sent the game into extra frames.
Lamar (22-18, 9-11 SLC) pushed across the go-ahead run in the top of the 10th after Ted Zentek singled through the left side to score Aaron Buchanan from second.
Trimm surrendered a lead-off single in the 10th to junior Jason Mohn, who quickly moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by redshirt freshman RJ Perucki. Freshman Riley Good then popped out in foul territory to set up James' game-winning bomb.
Senior Kevin Clarke (1-4) logged 3.1 innings of relief. The Huntsville native, who retired the first eight batters he faced, allowed one run on two hits and struck out five.
James and Perucki each tallied two hits, including a homer and two RBIs to lead the Roadrunners' 15-hit parade. Perucki swatted a two-run shot in the fourth, which gave UTSA a 5-2 lead. Four other Roadrunners also collected a pair of safeties on the night. Dalton was 1-for-5 with a pair of RBIs, giving him 15 in his last four games.
Jeff Abt was 3-for-5 with four RBIs to pace the Cardinals. He hit a two-run homer in the sixth and a two-run double in the seventh to put Lamar on top 7-5.
After each team scored a run in the opening frame, the Cardinals took a one-run lead in the third after Kevin Roebuck hit an run-scoring double to left.
UTSA took a 5-2 advantage an inning later when the first four batters came around to score before senior Ryan Hutson lined into a triple play.
The Cardinals knotted the game with a three-run sixth inning, which included the two-run homer by Abt.
The series concludes at 2 p.m. on Saturday.
