SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team defeated UAB, 7-5, in American Athletic Conference action to even the weekend series on Saturday morning at Roadrunner Field in San Antonio.
QUICK HITS
· Caleb Hill, Alexander Olivo and Mark Henning led the team with two hits apiece. Hill and Olivo each picked up two runs, while Henning recorded two RBI.
· Daniel Garza (3-1) picked up his third win of the season, striking out four and walking none in five innings pitched.
· UTSA improved to a 23-16 overall record (10-4 in AAC action), while UAB fell to a 17-20 overall record (5-9 in conference play).
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
The Roadrunners’ offense got off to a hot start in the first frame as the first three batters got on base with three consecutive hits. Mason Lytle opened the inning with a double down the right field line, before Hill won a 3-2 pitch count by singling through the left side to put runners on the corners. Next, Olivo hit a single up the middle to drive in Lytle and advance Hill to third.
A couple batters later, a groundout by James Taussig brought home Hill from third. Diego Diaz followed that with a chopper over the pitcher’s mound that put him on first and scored Olivo to give UTSA a 3-0 lead.
Ryan Ward forced a three up, three down inning in the second with a couple of strikeouts. The Blazers made it a one-run game (3-2, in favor of UTSA) by scoring a couple of runs in the top of the third, but the Roadrunners responded with a three-run bottom of the frame.
A couple walks and a single got things started in the bottom of the third for UTSA. Then, Henning drove two in with a single to right field, also advancing Diaz to third. Next, Isaiah Walker came in to pinch hit to Hector Rodriguez and hit a sacrifice fly to extend UTSA’s lead to 6-2.
The Roadrunners added another run to take a 7-2 advantage in the bottom of the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Matt King – his nation-leading 10th sacrifice fly of the season. The fifth and sixth frames saw a couple more zeros on the board as Daniel Garza forced the Blazers down in order in both innings.
In the fifth, he forced UAB’s leadoff hitter into a groundout to shortstop, won a full count with a swinging strikeout and forced a lineout to second baseman Diaz. Garza then started the sixth with another strikeout after battling through a full count, before recording a strikeout looking and a groundout to shortstop.
The Blazers brought in a run in the top of the seventh. Garza kept UAB off the board with another 1-2-3 inning in the eighth with a flyout and two groundouts.
A couple more runs came in for the Blazers in the top of the ninth as they attempted to come back. The Roadrunners held on and closed out the game without any further damage as UTSA defeated UAB by 7-5 on Saturday to even the series.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners and Blazers will conclude the series with a rubber match on Sunday at 12 p.m. at Roadrunner Field.
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