CLEARWATER, Fla. – The No. 2 seeded UTSA baseball team lost a heartbreaker, 9-5, in a 12-inning contest against seventh-seeded Charlotte in its American Athletic Conference Championship opener on Tuesday afternoon at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.
QUICK HITS
· Caleb Hill led the team with a 3-for-6 performance with a run, RBI and a double.
· Isaiah Walker, Alexander Olivo and Diego Diaz each had two-hit games.
· Matt King’s seven at-bats tied the program best, which has now been done 23 times in program history (last: Leyton Barry vs Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 3/11/23).
· The defense’s 36 putouts and 12 assists are the most this season.
· No. 2 seed UTSA fell to a 32-23 overall record while No. 7 seed Charlotte improved to a 24-32 overall record.
· The Roadrunners fall to the losers’ bracket where they will No. 6 seed Florida Atlantic on Wednesday.
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
After a scoreless first inning, the 49ers opened up scoring with one run in the top of the second. Braylon Owens put together a three up three down inning in the third, striking out two 49ers in the process.
The Roadrunners evened the score at 1-1 as a sacrifice fly by Hill brought home Diaz in the bottom of the third.
The fourth and fifth innings went scoreless, before Charlotte took a 5-1 lead in the top of the sixth.
UTSA knotted the score at 5-5 in the bottom of the eighth. After Hill led off the inning with a single, a double down the left field line by Walker drove him home. Then, Olivo shot a double down the right field line to bring in Walker. A couple of pitching changes and walks later, the bases were loaded with one out on the board. Diaz earned a five-pitch walk to bring in another run and make it a one-run game. Next, a sacrifice fly by Lorenzo Morresi tied the score up by driving home Spinn from third.
In the ninth inning, both teams boarded a runner but were not able to bring them home, forcing the game into extra innings. Daniel Garza forced the 49ers down in order while picking up a strikeout in the 10th frame. In the bottom of the inning, the Roadrunners loaded the bases but left them stranded.
Garza picked up another 1-2-3 frame in the top of the 11th while also striking out two more batters. UTSA then loaded the bases again in the bottom of the inning, using a hit by pitch, single and walk, but didn’t bring them in.
The 49ers broke the tie with a four-run top of the 12th and that would be the difference in the game. Although the Roadrunners placed a couple runners on the basepaths in the bottom of the inning, UTSA was not able to answer as it fell to Charlotte by 9-5 in a 12-inning thriller.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners fall to the losers’ bracket and will face No. 6 seed Florida Atlantic (who fell to No. 3 seed Tulane in the first round) on Wednesday. Wednesday’s game one between No. 5 seed UAB and No. 8 seed Rice is set for 12 p.m. CT/1 p.m. ET. UTSA’s game will start 47 minutes after the conclusion of that first game.
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