BILOXI, Miss. –UTSA's ninth-inning rally against No. 29 Florida Atlantic in The First 2019 Conference USA Championship presented by Air Force Reserve, came up short Wednesday at MGM Park.
With the 6-5 loss, the eight-seeded Roadrunners drop to 26-29 on the season, while the regular-season champions and top-seeded Owls improve to 38-18.
Battling back from deficits of 4-0 and 5-3 early in the contest, drawing even at 5-5 in the sixth, UTSA threatened another comeback in the eighth and ninth innings. FAU broke a 5-5 draw when Bobby Morgensen scored from third on a wild pitch.
Nick Thornquist worked a lead-off walk in the eighth and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt but was stranded there.
A double down the right field line by Hunter Grimes – his third hit of the night – and an error by the Owls put runners on second and third with no outs. After a strikeout, FAU intentionally walked Bryan Sturges, who homered earlier, to load the bases. The strategy paid off, as Zach Schneider induced a ground ball and his defense turned a double play, preserving the win for the home side.
FAU built a 4-0 lead with a pair of unearned runs in the first, before capitalizing on another error and tacking on two more unearned runs in the second.
Ryan Stacy put the Roadrunners on the board when he doubled – his second of the game - in the third, plating Arias from first. On the next pitch, Bryan Sturges blasted his seventh home run of the season, driving in his team leading 43rdand 44thruns of the season.
FAU answered with one in the bottom of the third but Grimes flipped the first pitch he saw over the Owls' shortstop and scored Chase Keng from second. Griffin Paxton led off the sixth with a walk and moved to third on consecutive ground outs. He scored on a two-out RBI off the bat of Grimes and knotting the game at five all.
Grimes went 3 for 4 on the night, driving in two. Stacy finished with two doubles, one run scored and an RBI in five at-bats. Sturges, Dylan Rock, Nick Thornquist and Jonathan Tapia added one hit each.
Bradley Griggs (3-4) became just the fifth UTSA pitcher in the history of the program to appear in 30 games in a single season. He is tied with Logan Onda (2014) and Larry Mason (1999), one shy of Noah Tritz (2006) and Eric Montoya's (1999) record of 31.
Griggs now ranks 10thall-time in program history with 71 appearances on the mound in his career. He registered his 51ststrikeout in 54 innings of work this season.
UTSA faces a win or go home game against either fifth-seeded Old Dominion, or four-seed Western Kentucky Thursday at 12:30 p.m.
