Stephen F. Austin
UTSA
SFA Lets Finale Slip Away At UTSA
4/11/2010 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 11, 2010
SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Tanner Hines extended his hit streak to 20 games to set a new school record, but the Lumberjacks could not hold a late three-run lead on Sunday as UTSA escaped with a narrow, 9-8 win over SFA in the finale of the three-game series at Roadrunner Field.
Hines singled in his first at-bat of the day to break his own school-record streak at SFA (21-10, 9-5 Southland), a mark that is the longest active hit streak in the Southland as well; however, it was Casey Selsor that was the story of the day as he went 4-for-4 with a bases-loaded double with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning that gave UTSA (13-17, 4-11 Southland) its first lead of the day.
Jason West was saddled with his third loss of the season, allowing the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Daniel Rockett in the bottom of the eighth inning that propelled the `Runners to the win.
Kevin Clarke earned his third win of the season with three innings of one-run ball with three strikeouts and no walks as the UTSA pitching staff worked around seven extra-base hits by the `Jacks on the day.
SFA pounded out three homers off the bats of Jarid Scarafiotti, Riley Huble and Darren Crabtree, but was only 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on the day as a team. Scarafiotti and Michael Haynes were the only Lumberjacks with multiple hits, with Haynes finishing with a pair of doubles.
UTSA starter Taylor Walton got himself in trouble early with two errors on a sacrifice bunt from Scarafiotti after the first two Lumberjack hitters of the day had reached. His throwing error on the play allowed Garrett Smith to come in and score the first run and put Hines on third and Scarafiotti on second just before Bobby Loveless hit a sacrifice fly to right field to make it 2-0.
But the `Runners answered with single runs in each of the next three innings off of SFA starter Justin Braddock to take a 3-2 lead early on. But the lead did not last for long as Huble launched a three-run homer in the top of the fourth that gave the lead back to the `Jacks. One hitter later Darren Crabtree sent one over the left field fence for a solo home run to make it 6-3, giving SFA back-to-back home runs for the third time in five games.
Selsor set up another run for UTSA in the fourth with a two-out double that was just in front of an RBI single by Ryan Dalton that cut the lead to 6-4.
Scarafiotti answered that run with a solo homer in the fifth to push the lead back to three, and from there it looked as though the Lumberjacks would cruise to a victory until the bottom of the seventh inning.
Jeff Taliaferro and Tyler Carpenter chased Braddock from the mound with consecutive singles, and after a sacrifice fly from Rockett and a pop up by Ryan Rummel it seemed as though freshman Cody Priest would pitch out of the jam. But after hitting Lance Brown, Johnny Cardenas went to closer Jason West to face Selsor, who shot the first pitch he saw into the left-center field gap that cleared the bases and put UTSA ahead.
SFA managed to tie it at eight apiece in the top of the eighth as Patrick Gratzke doubled to start things and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt. Clarke then struck out both Huble and Crabtree to follow, with SFA catching a break as Crabtree's third strike got by Taliaferro and allowed Gratzke to score and extend the inning.
The `Runners then proceeded to get the first two hitters of the bottom of the eighth on via walk and hit batter to Tommy Vukovich and Taliaferro. A sacrifice bunt moved them up and Rockett delivered his third RBI of the day with a sacrifice fly to left field to drive in what proved to be the winning run.
SFA has no midweek games on the schedule this week, but will be back in action for a conference series beginning Friday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
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