SAN ANTONIO – Despite a perfect 4-for-4 game from freshman Diego Diaz, the UTSA baseball team lost game two of its series against Grand Canyon, 9-7, on Saturday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
QUICK HITS
· Pharr, Texas, native Diaz went 4-for-4 with two runs, two RBI, a double and his first career home run.
· James Taussig hit his first home run as a Roadrunner. He hit four home runs at his previous school Radford in the 2022 season.
· Two more Roadrunners acquired multi-hit games as Mason Lytle went 2-for-5 with two RBI and one run and Alexander Olivo went 3-for-5.
· Braylon Owens struck out three batters in 2.2 innings of action.
· The team recorded a season-high 41 at-bats, 15 hits and 26 total bases.
· UTSA falls to a 5-6 record, while GCU improves to 6-4 record.
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
The first two innings went scoreless as starting pitcher Zach Royse struck out a batter while keeping the Lopes off the scoreboard. In the third inning, Grand Canyon opened up scoring with one run scored on a wild pitch and a solo home run to take a 2-0 lead.
Owens came in to relieve Royse in with one out in the third, striking out two batters to end the frame. Owens forced a three up, three down fourth inning with a groundout and two flyouts.
The Lopes jumped to a 4-0 lead in the fifth with two runs scored on a single and an error. In the bottom of the frame, the Roadrunners got on the board and decreased their deficit to 4-3. Zane Spinn opened the inning with a single to left field on a 2-2 count. Two batters later, Diaz slammed a two-run home run to right field – the freshman’s first of his career – to cut GCU’s lead in half. The very next batter to the plate followed suit as Lytle roped his second home run of the season to left field to cut UTSA’s deficit to 4-3.
In the sixth inning, Grand Canyon scored four on a single, hit by pitch and walk to break open its advantage to 8-3. In the bottom of the inning, Taussig hit his first home run in a UTSA uniform – cutting the Roadrunners’ deficit to 8-4.
Conor Myles and Uli Quiroga forced two scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth frames. In the bottom half of those frames, UTSA rallied to scatter three runs and cut GCU’s lead to 8-7. With two runners on and one out in the seventh, Matt King hit a single through the right side to clear the bases. In the next inning, Lytle delivered a single with runners in scoring position as Tye Odom came in to score, cutting the Lopes’ lead to just one run.
Grand Canyon added another run in the ninth on a solo home run. The Roadrunners attempted to get things going in the bottom of the ninth as the team got runners on the corners but were unable to score as UTSA fell to Grand Canyon in game two, 9-7.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners and Lopes will play the rubber match on Sunday at 1 p.m. at Roadrunner Field. Sunday’s game is UTSA Family Day, which consists of a trading card giveaway and postgame autograph session. The trading cards will be of Matt King, Mason Lytle, Diego Diaz, Ruger Riojas and Mark Henning.
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