SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team secured its second series victory of the season, shutting out Northwestern by 2-0 on Sunday at Roadrunner Field.
QUICK HITS
· Mason Lytle, Andrew Stucky and Hector Rodriguez led the Roadrunners with two hits apiece.
· Senior Uli Quiroga (1-0) turned in a quality start of scoreless, six-inning ball with three strikeouts, earning his first win of the season.
· Daniel Garza earned his first save of the season as he pitched the final three innings of the shutout.
· UTSA improves to an even 10-10 overall record, while Northwestern’s record falls to 7-9.
· This marks the Roadrunners’ second series win of the season, taking two out of three games over the Wildcats.
· The shutout is UTSA’s second shutout of the season, also shutting out Grand Canyon by 12-0 on March 1.
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
After a four-hour weather delay that forced the start time from 1 pm to 5 pm, the game started with five scoreless frames. Quiroga forced a scoreless first inning with a strikeout, flyout and popup. The Roadrunners boarded a couple runners in the bottom of the frame but didn’t bring through a run.
In the bottom of the second, UTSA got something going as the bases were loaded with two outs, but Northwestern escaped the inning unscathed. The top of the third went 1-2-3 as Quiroga forced a flyout, groundout and strikeout.
The Roadrunners had a couple more singles in the fourth but didn’t get past that. Both sides of the fifth inning went three up and three down. Quiroga forced two flyouts and a strikeout in the fifth, before another 1-2-3 inning in the sixth.
The score finally broke open in the bottom of the sixth. Going down 0-2 quickly, Diego Diaz battled through the count as he fouled off two more pitches and watched two fall outside the strike zone to make the count 2-2. He then hit a single to shortstop. The next batter was catcher Stucky, who hit a double to right center, while Diaz showed off his speed and came in to score all the way from first.
The Roadrunners extended their lead to 2-0 in the bottom of the seventh. The first batter went down swinging, before Lytle earned a four-pitch walk. Then, the next batter went down swinging to put two outs on the board. Matt King walked up to the plate and lined a double through the left side as Lytle hustled in to score.
The eighth inning was another scoreless one as both sides faced the minimum. Garza put away the first two outs of the ninth quickly with a groundout and flyout. The next two batters got on base via walks, but a flyout forced another zero on the board to secure the 2-0 shutout for UTSA over Northwestern in the series finale.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners head north to face longtime rival Texas State in a Battle of I-35 matchup on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Bobcat Ballpark in San Marcos, Texas.
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