SAN ANTONIO – Situational hitting and a calamity of miscues helped facilitate a 12-5 UTSA victory over Toledo at Nelson W. Wolff Stadium Thursday.
In the first game of the 2020 Irish Alamo Classic, the Roadrunners (4-1) capitalized on eight walks, three hit batsmen and four errors – which is usually less than ideal playing conditions – by the Rockets (0-4) defense.
Cole McKay made a team-high third appearance on the mound and his first career start at UTSA, evening his record at 1-1. Fighting near freezing wind chill and 20 mph wind gust, McKay worked through a lot of traffic on the base paths. He allowed only two runs, scattering seven hits, walking one and fanning five.
Toledo put pressure on two batters into the game with back-to-back base knocks. John Servello ripped a liner into the left-center gap but slipped and fell before reaching first and settled for a single. He advanced to second when Chris Meyers' pop-up played havoc with the left side of the UTSA infield and fell safely, just out of the reach of the third baseman.
McKay overcame the adversity by sitting down the next three batters, stranding the Rockets runners. His defense chipped in the second inning and limiting the damage to two tallies. A double, walk and a base hit put runners on the corners and one in with no outs for Toledo. A fourth-consecutive Rocket hitter reached with a single, plating a second marker but the runner going from first to third was cut down on a great throw by Jonathan Tapia in left. McKay coaxed a ground out and another punch out before stranding two more in the third. He ended the frame with a strikeout once again and sat Toledo down in order in the fourth. A strikeout ended the inning for the third time.
The nation's leader in hit-by-pitch after one weekend of play, Taylor Barber was hit-by-pitch for the fifth time in five games, opening the home second. Toledo's starting pitcher, Wyatt Jefferson, worked himself into a jam on the next pitch by plunking Jonathan Tapia with a pitch.
UTSA's leading hitter, Joshua Lamb, delivered a RBI double, scoring Barber and putting two runners in scoring position. A walk and a double play evened things at two.
In the third, Toledo's defense imploded with three errors and two walks, allowing the Roadrunners to score five times with just one hit – a RBI double by Tapia.
UTSA answered the Rockets run in the top of the fifth with one of the Roadrunners own, helped by another defensive lapse.
A third hit batsmen, Bryan Sturges, came home on a Nick Thornquist two-run opposite field homer over the right-center wall, upping the advantage to 10-3 but the home team was not done.
A solo run by Toledo in the eighth was answered when freshman Hobbs Price blasted his team leading second home run down the left-field line. Thornquist produced a run with a productive out, scoring Sturges.
Toledo added a lone blast in the top of the ninth for the final margin.
NEXT UP:
The two sides meet again Friday at 1 p.m.
