RUSTON, La. — UTSA gave up two big innings to Louisiana Tech on Saturday afternoon and the Bulldogs rallied for a 12-11 victory to even this weekend's series.
The Roadrunners (28-19, 13-10 C-USA) scored in each of the first three innings before LA Tech scored nine times in the third.
The Bulldogs (22-22, 6-16 C-USA) batted around in the inning with four batters seeing the plate twice. Taylor Love homered for two runs and costly errors kept the inning alive.
Jesse Baker hit a solo home run in the sixth to chip into Louisiana Tech’s lead and, two innings later, all nine Roadrunners in the lineup saw action, as UTSA plated four runs to take an 11-9 lead.
Geonte Jackson scored the first run of the frame when he came home on Matt Hilston’s grounder. With the bases loaded two batters later, John Bormann hit a bases-clearing double to score Kevin Markham, Skyler Valentine and Baker, to take the lead over the home team.
Chance Kirby replaced Nolan Trabanino in the eighth and the freshman gave up three Bulldogs runs that put LA Tech back on top. Kirby forced a fly out to right in his first batter faced, but then gave up back-to-back hits that allowed for the first run to score. Jacob Derouen followed with a two-out double that cleared the bases.
Kirby was charged with the loss in his one inning of work. He allowed two runs on three hits and struck out two batters.
Meanwhile, Adam Atkins got the win in two innings in relief. He allowed three runs on three hits, walked two and registered a strikeout.
Both teams notched 14 hits on the day and all but two Roadrunners recorded at least one hit. Five had two hits on the day, as Jackson finished the day 2-for-5 with two RBIs and one run, while Baker went 1-for-4 with three runs scored and his team-leading 13th long ball of the year.
Sunday's rubber game is slated for 1 p.m. on Sunday.