BELLEVUE, Wash. — Brock Hartson allowed one run over seven innings of six-hit ball and UTSA topped Seattle in Friday's Western Athletic Conference (WAC) series opener, 8-1, at Bannerwood Park.
Hartson, who improved to 4-3 on the year with the win, turned the ball over to the bullpen after the seventh, which shut out the Redhawks (10-19, 2-5 WAC) in the final two frames.
UTSA (17-13, 3-4 WAC) backed up the strong pitching performances with 13 hits and put the game out of reach with five runs combined in its final two at-bats.
RJ Perucki and Jesse Baker paced the Roadrunners at the plate. Perucki was 3-for-4 with a double, a homer and one RBI while Baker went 3-for-5 with three RBIs.
UTSA broke a 1-1 lead in the fourth on Perucki's leadoff homer to left and never looked back.
The Birds tacked on their third run in the sixth on John Welborn's RBI single.
Two panels later, UTSA took advantage of a pair of Seattle errors to plate score three times.
The Roadrunners capped the scoring in the ninth with Baker's two-run single.
Ted Hammond (1-3) was saddled with the loss after allowing three runs on eight hits in 5.2 innings. The Redhawks starting pitcher also walked two and struck out three.
The set continues at 4 p.m. (CT) on Saturday.