SAN ANTONIO, Texas – Less than 24 hours after allowing a late-inning rally, UTSA's bullpen turned in a stellar performance, striking out 12 batters in a one-run loss to Bradley.
The Roadrunners suffered a 3-2 setback at Roadrunner Field Saturday, falling to 6-5 on the season, while the Braves improved to 6-2.
Junior Jake Harrison dominated the Bradley bats, tossing five scoreless innings of relief, the longest outing of his career. He allowed two singles and fanned a career-high 10.
Jonathan Tapia and Chase Keng registered two hits each and Dylan Rock drove in both runs for UTSA. Tapia has reached base safely in all 11 games and Rock extended his hitting streak to 11. Bryan Sturges went 1-for-3 at the dish, reaching base in eight consecutive contests.
Bradley tallied all three runs in the top of the first, spoiling Connor Heffron's first career start, despite not making solid contact against the junior southpaw.
The brother combo of Zach and Bradley Griggs did not allow a run in three innings of relief. Zach retired two batters and issued one walk in 0.2 innings of work, while his brother Bradley allowed two hits and fanned two over the final 2.1 innings.
The Braves built a 3-0 lead on two walks, two grounders through the infield and another that glanced off Heffron's glove for an infield hit.
Tapia manufactured a run in the bottom of the frame, trimming UTSA's deficit to 3-1. He beat the first baseman back to the bag after the defender charged Tapia's dribbler down the first base line. After a groundout moved him to second, Tapia swiped third and came in to score on a groundout.
Pitching dominated as both sides posted zeros until the home half of the sixth.
Bryan Arias was awarded first after being hit by a pitch and moved to third on a failed pick-off attempt that got past the first baseman and skirted down the left field line. Once again, the Roadrunners put a run on the board on a groundout, trimming the margin to 3-2.
UTSA loaded the bases in the seventh with one out but back-to-back pop ups to the shortstop ended the threat.
O'Brien and Dan Bolt registered two hits for the Braves. Gosswein started on the mound and worked the first 6.0 innings, allowing two runs on two hits, walking two and striking out three for his first win of the year. Allan Beer allowed one hit in the ninth to register his third save.
The series concludes Sunday at 11 a.m.
- UTSA -
