SAN ANTONIO — Junior left-hander Casey Selsor tossed the first shutout of his career and struck out nine to lead UTSA to a 4-0 victory against Central Arkansas on Thursday evening at Roadrunner Field.
The San Antonio native allowed just six singles, faced five batters over the minimum and evened his record at 5-5 on the year.
"Casey did an outstanding job tonight," 11th-year head coach Sherman Corbett said. "We knew we were going to need a performance like that to win."
The Roadrunners (24-29, 15-16 SLC) took a 1-0 lead in the sixth when senior Tyler Carpenter belted an 0-2 offering from Central Arkansas starter Dustin Ward over the wall in left center.
Two frames later, senior Ryan Hutson swatted a two-run shot, the 45th of his career, and redshirt freshman RJ Perucki scored from second on Carpenter's infield single to stretch the advantage to 4-0.
Selsor worked around an infield hit by Jonathan Houston in the ninth to close out the 122-pitch gem.
"A lot of things were going right for me," Selsor said. "It started with filling up the zone and the guys playing great defense behind me. We also were able to get big hits when we needed them."
Selsor held the Bears (23-28, 12-19 SLC) hitless for the first four innings and allowed only three runners to reach scoring position.
"I was just trying to go out and hang zeros to give my team a chance to win," Selsor added.
Carpenter tied a career high with four hits, including his fourth round-tripper of the year.
Central Arkansas had an opportunity to tie the contest in the eighth when Selsor gave up back-to-back infield singles to start the frame, which put runners at the corners. However, Zack Dickson followed with a squeeze bunt, but Selsor fielded the ball and flipped underhand to Carpenter in time to tag out Blake Roberts at the plate. A strikeout followed by a fielder's choice grounder third ended the threat.
Ward (8-4) also went the distance, allowing four runs on seven hits with a walk and eight strikeouts.
The series continues at 6 p.m. on Friday.
