KAYSVILLE, Utah — UTSA rallied with a run in the seventh to send Friday night’s series opener at Utah State to extra innings before Kassandra Uchida’s run-scoring single in the eighth lifted the Aggies to a 2-1 victory.
With heavy rain in the Logan area making LaRee & LaGrand Johnson Field unplayable, the contest was moved an hour and 15 minutes south to Kaysville, which is near Great Salt Lake.
Samantha Beeson, Victoria Birdwell, Darian Blake and Jolene Graham all notched hits in the contest, while Beeson drove in the Roadrunners' lone run.
Meanwhile, Uchida went 3-for-4 and Shelbi Tyteca picked up the win in relief for the Aggies (7-28, 1-6), who picked up their first league win of the spring.
UTSA (19-15, 4-3 WAC) struggled to get on track against starting pitcher Noelle Johnson, who allowed just one run on three hits in seven innings before yielding to Tyteca.
Utah State jumped out to an early lead after a pair of singles put runners on the corners with one out. Samantha Miller drove in the game’s first run with a bunt hit that plated Nicole Arata.
Johnson did not allow a hit until the third inning when Blake singled up the middle, but the freshman was left stranded on base.
That was the Roadrunners’ only hit until the seventh, when they tied the score with a two-out rally.
After Johnson retired the first two batters of the frame, Graham kept the visitor’s hopes alive with a single to right field. The Sutter, Calif., native was lifted in favor of pinch runner Cosette Hernandez, who scored on Beeson’s double.
UTSA was unable to score again in the inning and Alyssa Vordenbaum worked around a leadoff single in the bottom half of the panel to send the game to extra innings.
A walk and sacrifice bunt put Alexis Ramirez at second with one out in the eighth for Birdwell, who promptly lined a single off of Arata at third base. Ramirez tried to score on the play, but she was thrown out at home. Birdwell advanced to second on the throw and Johnson got out of the jam by coaxing a ground out from Megan Low.
In the bottom of the inning, a one-out single and walk put runners on first and second for Arata, who reached on a fielder’s choice. Tyteca loaded the bases after being hit by a pitch with two outs to set up Uchida’s game-winning hit to right.
Vordenbaum (7-7) allowed two runs on nine hits and a walk with three strikeouts in the loss, while Tyteca (3-1) surrendered just a hit and one walk in her inning of work.
After just two batters of the second game, the contest was halted due to darkness.
The teams will resume the second game of the series at 1 p.m. (CT) on Saturday before finishing the set with the third and final contest.