UTSA walks off Marshall on Friday night, 4-3UTSA walks off Marshall on Friday night, 4-3
Jeff Huehn/UTSA Athletics
Baseball

UTSA walks off Marshall on Friday night, 4-3

SAN ANTONIO – UTSA rallied from a one-run deficit in the ninth inning with four consecutive walks, including back-to-back, bases-loaded free passes, to push the tying and winning runs across the plate for a 4-3 victory over Marshall on Friday night at Roadrunner Field.

The Roadrunners (9-10, 1-2 C-USA) started the rally with one out in the ninth, as Dylan Rock reached on a single to center field. Chris Estrada drew a five-pitch walk to put two on base. Both Rock and Estrada were replaced with pinch runners, who moved into scoring position on a wild pitch. With a 2-0 count, Chase Keng then was intentionally walked to load the bases.

The Thundering Herd (11-7, 1-3 C-USA) brought in Matt Reed from the bullpen to relieve Gordon Cardenas, who started the ninth on the mound. Reed proceeded to unleash four consecutive balls to Joshua Lamb, which pushed Jonathan Tapia across the plate with the tying run. Bryan Arias then watched four more pitches from Reed go by to force Aldo Buendia home with the winning run.

Palmer Wenzel (4-1) received the win, despite allowing Marshall to take a 3-2 lead in the top-half of the ninth.

The Thundering Herd broke a 2-2 tie when Peter Hutzal hit a double to drive in Reynaldo Pastrana from first base.

UTSA built a 2-0 lead through four innings, as Karan Patel faced one over the minimum on the mound.

However, Pastrana led off the fifth with a solo home run that broke up Patel's no-hit bid.

The right-hander ended his night with a career-high nine strikeouts and allowed the one hit.

Two panels later, Marshall picked up an unearned run on Geordon Blanton's sacrifice fly to pull even.

After each team went scoreless in the eighth inning, Pastrana started the ninth with a sharp single through the right side of the infield. Three pitches later, Hutzal banged a double off the wall in left-center field, allowing Pastrana to score from first.

Cardenas (3-1), who took the loss, started the final stanza with a strikeout. However, he gave up the single to Rock and walked Estrada and Keng before being lifted from the game.

The final 14 pitches from Thundering Herd pitchers missed the strike zone.

Game two of the series will be played at 2 p.m. Saturday. Steven Dressler (2-1) is slated to start on the mound for the Roadrunners.

 






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