MIAMI, Fla. — UTSA rallied for a pair of runs in the seventh inning but came up short, as FIU picked up a 7-6 victory in Thursday's series opener at FIU Baseball Stadium.
C.J. Pickering hit a two-run homer in the seventh to bring UTSA to within one of the home team, but it was not enough, as the Panthers bullpen held off the Roadrunners (16-16, 6-7 C-USA).
Left-hander Alex Demchak entered the game after Pickering's home run and pitched 2.1 innings to hold UTSA to just two hits. Chandler Raiden faced the final Roadrunners batter and earned the save, his second of the season.
UTSA outhit FIU, 13-7, with both teams committing a miscue.
Trent Bowles and Pickering each went 3-for-4 at the plate, as all but two Roadrunners in the starting lineup registered at least one hit. Pickering also recorded four RBIs and scored a run.
Roadrunners starter Nolan Trabanino was charged with the loss in three frames of work. The southpaw allowed five runs (two earned) on four hits, while walking four.
Three of Trabanino's runs came in the opening stanza, as FIU (20-14, 7-6 C-USA) struck early.
UTSA responded in the third with three runs of its own to tie the score.
Kevin Markham put the Birds on the board after leading off the inning with a shot up the middle and advancing 90 feet on a ground out by Bryan Arias. Ben Brookover singled through the right side to drive in UTSA's first run of the game and he later crossed home plate, along with Bowles, on Pickering's two-run single.
The Panthers scored the go-ahead run in the home half with a pair to break the tie for a lead that held the rest of the way.
In the fourth, Jesse Baker hit his ninth home run of the season off the flagpole in left center, but the Panthers added a pair of insurance runs in the sixth to make it 7-4.
UTSA closed in on the Panthers in the seventh neither team scored in the last inning-and-a-half.
The weekend series will continue at 6 p.m. (CT) on Friday.
