RUSTON, La. — Timely hitting and a strong defensive showing helped UTSA to a 6-3 victory at Louisiana Tech on Friday night at J.C. Love Field.
All but one starter in the UTSA lineup recorded at least one hit with Kevin Markham, Chris Estrada and Ryan Stacy each with two apiece, while Markham hit a home run, scored twice and drove in three runs.
The Roadrunners bullpen combined for 5.2 innings on the hill with southpaw Karl Craigie earning his fourth win of the season. Craigie allowed one run on two hits while Chris Muller collected his fourth save of the season in his 2.2 innings of work. Muller scattered two hits, did not allow a run and struck out four.
Defensively, UTSA (13-11, 3-4 C-USA) erased a pair of miscues on the stat sheet and totaled four double plays to match the program record of double plays turned in a single game. The last time the Roadrunners accomplished the feat was back on April 3, 2010, at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
UTSA followed its impressive outing at Baylor to its third straight. The Roadrunners plated a pair of runs early in the opening stanza after Jesse Baker drew a leadoff walk and Markham tripled to score Baker. Bryan Arias then hit a sacifice fly to score Markham.
Louisiana Tech (17-9, 1-6 C-USA) responded with a run in the home half, but it was unable to make up the deficit after the Roadrunners added another three runs in the third.
Bulldogs starting pitcher Kent Hasler issued his second leadoff walk of the game in the third, which allowed Stacy to take a base. Two batters later, Markham blasted a two-run home run over the right center wall to push the Roadrunners lead to 5-1.
The Bulldogs added a run in the home half of the third but went quietly in the next three innings.
In the seventh, UTSA added an insurance run after Arias drew his second walk of the game and later scored on Estrada's RBI double.
Louisiana Tech responded in the bottom half of the inning with run and threatened to score again with bases loaded and two outs. A ground out to second ended the threat and neither team scored the rest of the way.
Due to impending inclement weather on Sunday, a 2 p.m. doubleheader now will be played on Saturday.
