Stephen F. Austin
UTSA
UTSA Takes Down SFA In Series Opener
4/8/2011 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 8, 2011
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - UTSA pounded out nine runs on 14 hits against five SFA pitchers on Friday in taking a 9-4 win over the Lumberjacks in the opener of a three-game set at Jaycees Field.
The Lumberjacks (21-10, 9-4 SLC) never led on the afternoon and struggled to piece together innings against Roadrunner (12-20, 5-8 SLC) starter Casey Selsor, who picked up his second win of the season with seven innings of work, allowing three runs on nine SFA hits with four strikeouts and a walk.
Tyler Herriage saw his record fall to 1-4 on the season, allowing five runs on nine hits and striking out two, while not issuing a walk for the second consecutive week. Jarid Scarafiotti led the way at the plate for SFA with a 3-for-4 afternoon and Jackson Hood finished with a double and his third homer of the year, but the bottom four slots in the Lumberjack order combined to go just 1-for-14 for the day.
Herriage started off as well as he has all season, retiring each of the first nine hitters he faced before Riley Good and Matthew James each singled in the fourth as part of their three-hit days. Still, it wasn't until the fifth that the `Runners managed to get on the board on a single to center by Mike Warren that scored Daniel Rockett from second. UTSA added another unearned run in the inning on a sacrifice fly and scored another in the sixth on another sacrifice fly, this time from Ryan Dalton, to build a 3-0 lead.
But SFA responded with two runs in the sixth off of Selsor, getting a pair of infield hits from Bryson Myles and Garrett Smith to get it started, and cracked the scoreboard for the first time with some help from Dalton as a throwing error on Smith's single helped bring Myles all the way around from first. Scarafiotti followed with an RBI single two batters later to bring SFA back to within a 3-2 margin, and Jackson Hood followed that with a double down the left-field line to put runners at second and third with just one out. But Selsor was able to coax a grounder from Chris Hernandez for the second out and then struck out Michael Haynes to leave the tying and go-ahead runners on base.
It did not take long for the `Runners to get back on the board, singling on each of the first two pitches of the seventh and using a wild pitch and a bloop single from Good to plate two runs of their own and reclaim a three-run edge.
An SFA error helped bring home another UTSA run in the seventh to push the lead to 6-2, but a two-run home run from Hood in the bottom of the eighth quickly cut the lead in half and had SFA within striking distance heading to the final inning.
But UTSA kept the offense going, using three straight hits from the top of the lineup to start a one-out rally, including two-run double from Ryan Hutson. Two batters later Tyler Carpenter kept a double inside the third-base line to score Hutson from second, putting the `Runners up 9-4, which was pretty of wiggle room for reliever Cody Scott to work with in pitching a scoreless ninth.
Despite the loss, SFA still remains in sole possession of second place in the Southland Conference with two games in the series remaining. The Lumberjacks have taken two out of three from UTSA each of the past two seasons, including 2009 when SFA dropped the first game at home to UTSA before rallying to win the final two.
Senior righty Jared West is slated to get the ball for SFA on Saturday at 2:00 p.m. against junior right-hander Taylor Walton for UTSA.
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