BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The No. 25 UTSA baseball team dropped a 4-2 game to start the series against UAB on Friday afternoon at Young Memorial Field.
QUICK HITS
- The Roadrunners lone two runs came off solo home runs by Leyton Barry in the sixth and Caleb Hill in the ninth.
- Starting pitcher Luke Malone struck out five Blazers in seven innings pitched.
- Taylor Smith snapped his 34-game reached-base streak.
- Brooks Walton pitched a complete game on 107 pitches for the Blazers, making the difference in this series opener.
- The Roadrunners fell to a 31-11 overall record (14-4 in C-USA action), while UAB improved to a 14-27 overall record (5-14 in conference play).
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
The first few frames went scoreless as the Blazer's Walton sat down the Roadrunners in order in the first four frames. For UTSA, Malone worked through a few jams to put up three scoreless frames.
The Blazers scored four runs on a fielder's choice, single and a sacrifice bunt in the fourth inning and that would prove to be enough for UAB.
After a scoreless fifth inning in which Malone sat down the Blazers in order, a solo home run by Barry on the first pitch he saw got the Roadrunners on the board (4-1, UAB leading) in the top of the sixth.
The seventh and eighth frames added a few more zeroes to the board as Malone forced a couple of groundouts and a lineout after the stretch. Coming in to relieve Malone, Daniel Shafer forced a 1-2-3 eighth frame with a groundout and two popouts to keep the game close.
After two quick outs to start the top of the ninth, the Roadrunners had to lock in to try and win the opener. Hill stepped up to bat and watched the first ball land outside the strike zone, before watching the second one fall in for a 1-1 count. On the next pitch, Hill unleashed and sent it flying past the right field wall to make the score 4-2 with the Blazers still leading. Unfortunately, UTSA was unable to complete the rally as the Roadrunners fell to UAB, 4-2, in the series opener.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners and Blazers go head-to-head for game two of the conference series on Saturday at 12 p.m. (CT) from Young Memorial Field, streamed on CUSA.tv. The game was moved up from its previously scheduled 2 p.m. to avoid incoming weather.
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