SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA Baseball team battled through a back-and-forth battle with UT Arlington in the series finale, but fell by 5-4 on Sunday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
QUICK HITS
· Freshman catcher Whitt Joyce earned his first collegiate start.
· Senior Ty Tilson led the Roadrunners with a pair of hits, one RBI and one double.
· Redshirt-sophomore Braden Davis earned the start and kept the Mavericks scoreless in 1.0 IP.
· Senior Daniel Garza struck out four batters in 4.2 innings pitched.
· Senior Drake Smith closed out the game, allowing no runs on no hits and striking out one in the final frame.
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
The Roadrunners and Mavericks mimicked each other the entire game, beginning with a scoreless first inning. In the second frame, each team scored one run. UT Arlington opened up the frame with a solo homerun, while UTSA responded with a Tilson RBI double in the bottom of the inning to tie things up at 1-1.
The third through fifth innings went scoreless as the teams only had three baserunners combined. During this, Garza struck out four batters.
The Mavericks took a 3-1 lead in the top of the sixth on a two-run double, but the Roadrunners responded in the bottom of the frame as a Matt King RBI single and pinch-hit Alexander Olivo RBI single tied the game up once again at 3-3.
Fischer Kingsbery kept UT Arlington in the seventh inning, while UTSA went 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the frame.
The Mavericks took a 5-3 lead with a double and a groundout in the eighth inning and the Roadrunners were unable to respond.
Down two runs going into the ninth, UTSA brought in Smith to shut down UT Arlington and give the Roadrunners a chance. He did exactly that as he forced a strikeout, flyout and popup to prevent the Mavericks from furthering their lead.
The Roadrunners used that momentum to fight back in the bottom of the inning. Broc Parmer and Hector Rodriguez opened up the inning with back-to-back singles. James Taussig then came up to the plate and hit a double over the first baseman that brought in Broc Parmer, bringing UTSA to just one run shy of tying it with no outs on the board.
A groundout and game play error proved costly to the Roadrunners, giving UTSA just one more opportunity to change the game. The Roadrunners were unable to bounce back as UTSA fell to UT Arlington, 5-4, in the series finale.
Both UTSA and UT Arlington ended the series with an even 2-2 record on the season.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners are set to face Tarleton in Stephenville, Texas, on Tuesday at 4 p.m.
-UTSA-