SAN ANTONIO, Texas – In a back-and-forth affair, UTSA answered every rally by Western Kentucky Saturday at Roadrunner Field and evened the weekend series at one win apiece.
The Roadrunners (20-23, 9-11 C-USA) banged out 16 hits, including three home runs, three doubles and triple, outlasting WKU (19-21-1, 10-9-1 C-USA) 17-12.
Trailing 7-5 in the bottom of the sixth, UTSA sent 10 men to the plate – scoring seven. Bryan Sturges and Griffin Paxton delivered three-run hits, as the first seven batters reached safely to open the frame.
Bryan Arias, opened the frame with a single and slid in safely on an errant throw by the second baseman on a grounder by Ryan Stacy. Sturges gave the home side the lead with a three-run blast halfway up the screen beyond the left-center field wall.
After falling behind three times in the first six innings, the Roadrunners continued to pile on and never trailed again, totaling 12 runs over the final three innings.
The next three batters – Dylan Rock, Nick Thornquist and Taylor Barber - worked consecutive walks on 12 balls in 16 pitches , loading the bases with no outs. Paxton smashed a liner between the first-base line and the first baseman that rolled into the right field corner, clearing the bags with a stand-up triple.
Neither starting pitcher made it through the third inning, as both teams tallied five runs each after three turns on offense.
WKU jumped out to a 1-o lead, but UTSA grabbed a 2-1 advantaged on a two-run double by Thornquist.
After another run by the visitors in the top of the second, Sturges and Rock produced runs with a sacrifice fly and a ground out, posting a 4-1 advantage.
The Hilltoppers rallied back with three runs on three hits in the third, but an RBI single by Aldo Buendia knotted the game at 5-5 through three.
Bradley Griggs, who relieved UTSA's starter Slater Foust with one out in the second, shut down the visitors offense in the fourth and fifth innings. He allowed just one hit over that stretch. He retired the first two Hilltoppers in the sixth, before allowing two hits, an intentional walk and a hit batsman, surrendering two runs.
He benefited from the uprising in the sixth and earned the victory, improving to 3-3 on the season.
Leading 12-7, UTSA allowed two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth but matched those totals in each frame.
In the seventh, Thornquist scored Stacy from third with a sacrifice fly and Rock scored on an RBI single from Barber.
Arias launched a no-doubter towering shot over the barrier in left center in the eighth, scoring Buendia, who led off with a single. After a pitching change, Stacy delivered the very next pitch over the wall in center, reestablishing the five-run margin.
Arias went 4-for-6, falling a triple short of hitting for the cycle, scoring three times and knocking in two more. Paxton, Stacy and Buendia registered two hits each, while the other five starters in the Roadrunners lineup recorded one hit apiece.
First pitch of the series finale is at noon Sunday.
