LUBBOCK — Mason George stepped up to the plate with two outs in the ninth and blasted a double off the center field wall to drive in three runs and that lifted UTSA to a 3-2 victory at No. 6 Texas Tech on Saturday afternoon.
After much of Saturday's contest had been a pitchers duel between right-hander Tyler Giovanoni and left-hander Steven Gingery, the wheels were put in motion in the ninth after Trent Bowles hit into a double play.
Chris Estrada faced a full count and made his way to first after Gingery issued his third walk of the day. A wild pitch put Estrada in scoring position and he then was 90 feet away from scoring after Bryan Arias reached on an infield single.
With runners on the corners and relief pitcher Parker Mushinski on the mound for Texas Tech, C.J. Pickering loaded the bases by taking his first walk of the day but was replaced by Ben Ostrominski on the base paths. George, who replaced Tony Beam in the eighth, stepped into the batters box and blasted his bases-clearing double on a 1-0 count to score Ostrominski, Arias and Estrada.
Right-hander Chris Muller sat the Red Raiders down in order in the ninth, registering a pair of strikeouts, to earn his second save of the season. Karl Craigie got the win for UTSA (8-6) in 1.2 innings, as he did not allow a hit or run and tallied a pair of strikeouts.
Giovanoni went 6.1 innings and held the Red Raiders (13-3) to just two hits while retiring 20 of the 23 batters he faced. Both runs he allowed were unearned.
Gingery went 8.2 innings to receive the no decision. He gave up six hits and was charged with two of the Roadrunners' three runs while recording eight strikeouts. Mushinski was charged with the loss as he failed to record an out and allowed one run on one walk.
The Red Raiders scored their only runs of the day off Roadrunners errors.
In the second inning, a throwing error by Aldo Buendia allowed Connor Beck to reach and score Tanner Gardner. Meanwhile, in the seventh, a fielding error by Pickering allowed for Hunter Hargrove to reach and he later scored on Gardner's RBI double.
The weekend series will come to a close on at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
