SAN ANTONIO — UTSA opened its home schedule with a split on the opening day of this weekend's UTSA Classic on Friday evening at Roadrunner Field. The Roadrunners topped New Mexico, 1-0, behind a stellar pitching performance by Lizzy Fox before dropping a 5-4 decision in nine innings against Incarnate Word.
Fox tossed 11.1 innings without an earned run to push her streak to 18.1 innings for the Roadrunners (5-6), who got three hits, including two doubles and a homer, along with three RBIs from Rylee Rodriguez. Rodriguez had a two-bagger in each contest and she has hit safely in her last nine games.
Taylor Oberg and Hailey Garza also recorded three hits on the day, with Garza collecting the first triple of her career.
Coming off a near no-hitter on Wednesday at Sam Houston State, Fox scattered three hits and retired 18 consecutive batters at one point in game one en route to the third shutout of her career. Fox went the distance on just 57 pitches, 44 of which were strikes, for the most efficient outing of her collegiate career.
The junior gave up a pair of singles in the top of the first, but got out of the inning with a pair of grounders to start her streak. She sat down the Lobos (4-8) in order in the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth and recorded an out in the top of the seventh before New Mexico could notch its third hit of the contest.
The only run of the contest came from the Roadrunners in the bottom of the first.
After Lobos pitcher Marissa Bethke recorded the first two outs of the inning, Bailee Baldwin reached on an error and Randee Crawford walked to extend the frame. Rodriguez then lined a double down the left-field line to plate Baldwin for the 1-0 lead.
Fox made sure the slim cushion held and she quickly ran through the New Mexico lineup. Following the Lobos' one-out single in the top of the seventh, Fox ended any hopes of a comeback with a pop-up and a grounder to close the contest.
In all, she needed just eight or fewer pitches to retire the side in five innings, while the longest at-bat against her lasted seven pitches.
In the second game of the day, UTSA staged a rally in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score at four before succumbing to the Cardinals (4-7) in extra innings.
Incarnate Word jumped ahead with a run in the second that the Roadrunners answered in the bottom of the third. Baldwin laid down a bunt single with one out and scored two batters later on Rodriguez's double, her fifth of the campaign, to center field.
However, the Cardinals scored three runs off three hits and an error in the fifth to pull ahead 4-1.
UTSA got one of those runs back in the bottom of the frame when Rodriguez crushed her team-leading fourth home run of the season. The freshman lined the third pitch of her at-bat over the wall in left to slice the deficit to 4-2.
Fox worked a scoreless sixth and seventh and UTSA tied the score with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Crawford started the rally with a walk before she was lifted for pinch-runner Madison Kinley. Kinley motored home on Garza's first triple and then Oberg drove home the tying run with a perfectly placed bunt to extend the game to extra innings.
Neither team scored in the eighth, but the Cardinals grabbed the upper hand with a run in the ninth as the game was played under the international tiebreaker rule. UTSA had a chance to match in the bottom of the inning, but left a runner stranded on third as Incarnate Word took the 5-4 final.
Fox took the tough-luck loss with an unearned run allowed in 4.1 innings of relief to fall to 3-4 on the season.
UTSA will continue tournament play on Saturday with a 3 p.m. matchup against New Mexico (4-8) before a 5:30 p.m. contest against I-35 rival Texas State (7-2).
