SAN ANTONIO — Three Roadrunners blasted home runs in Sunday's series finale, along with a stellar pitching performance from Chris Muller, that helped UTSA to a 7-5 victory against Old Dominion at Roadrunner Field.
UTSA (11-11, 2-4 C-USA) used two-run homers from Ben Brookover and Trent Bowles to even the score at five runs apiece in the third inning.
Both teams were quick to score through the first three innings after Old Dominion (19-5, 5-1 C-USA) scored a pair of runs in the first inning. The Roadrunners responded with a run in the bottom half of the opening stanza to cut the Monarchs' lead in half, 2-1.
In the top of the second, Old Dominion scored its final three runs of the game that put the Monarchs up 5-3. Reliever Chris Muller entered the game in the second with one out and got out of the inning without having a run charged to him. Muller earned the win for UTSA after working a career-high 7.2 innings with a season-high seven strikeouts.
Through the next four innings, both teams went quietly before second baseman Bryan Arias broke the knotted score. On the 2-1 pitch, Arias blasted a leadoff home run over to left center to put the Roadrunners up 6-5. Three batters later, Chris Estrada, who reached on a fielding error by the Monarchs' first baseman, drove in an insurance run, scoring pinch runner Ryan Stacy.
Muller worked the order in the top of the ninth to send the visiting Monarchs home with their first loss in C-USA play. ODU was the only remaining team in the circuit to be undefeated up until today.
UTSA, which outhit Old Dominion by a count of 10-6, got a pair of hits from Arias and Jesse Baker.
The Roadrunners will hit the road again for their next four games beginning with a 6 p.m. game on Tuesday, March 28, at Baylor.
