NORFOLK, Va. – Down to its final strike, UTSA hit a three-run home run to force extra innings, where it eventually clipped the Old Dominion baseball team, 8-7 in 11 innings.
The Monarchs (22-6, 6-5 C-USA) held a 7-4 lead heading into the top of the ninth and brought out reliever Jason Hartline for his third inning of work. Hartline allowed a leadoff single to Jonathan Tapia, which ended the day for the senior left-hander. Noah Dean came on to finish out the game and struck out Leyton Barry for the first out before Sammy Diaz lofted a ball to deep right field. Andy Garriola made a play on the ball at the warning track, but the ball became dislodged as Garriola collided with the wall. Diaz was safe at second with a double, and Tapia moved up to third. Dean then got Ryan Flores to fly out, setting up the decisive showdown with Ian Bailey. Bailey worked a full count before turning on a Dean offering, tying the score with a no-doubter over the wall in left center.
ODU went down quietly in the bottom of the ninth before Dean set down the Roadrunners (20-11, 6-5) without issue in the 10th. Matt Coutney led off the bottom of the 10th with a walk but was erased on an inning-ending double play.
Dean started off the 11th with a strikeout before hitting Diaz and uncorking a wild pitch that moved him up to second. Flores doubled into right center to drive in Diaz, the eventual winning run.
The Monarchs could not put together a rally in the bottom half of the inning. Pinch hitter James Tarkenton II drew a one-out walk, but Tommy Bell and Kenny Levari both struck out to end the game.
Old Dominion struck first as Coutney hit a solo home run, his fourth long ball in the past five games, in the second inning. The first baseman from Edmonton, Alberta was 2-for-3 with three runs scored on Saturday and is batting 13-for-19 (.684) with four runs driven in and nine scored in the past five games.
The Roadrunners got to ODU starter Nick Pantos in the top of the third, plating two runs on two hits. Pantos got ahead early throughout the inning but struggled putting the UTSA batters away. With two strikes, he hit leadoff batter Tapia before allowing a two-strike single to Barry. Pantos then walked the bases loaded. Flores drove in the first run of the frame when he reached on a fielder's choice, and Bailey hit another two-strike single to score Barry.
UTSA capitalized on a Monarch miscue in the fourth inning, pushing across two more runs by way of a Levari throwing error with two outs, but ODU soon got both runs back as Robbie Petracci cranked a home run into right field that scored Coutney and made it a 4-3 game.
Petracci was 3-for-5 on Saturday with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Pantos again ran into trouble in the fifth, allowing the first two batters to reach. That spelled the end of the outing for the senior right-hander as Vincent Bashara came on in his stead. Bashara struck out his first batter before inducing a 4-6-3 double play to get ODU out of the jam.
Bashara continued to cruise in the sixth, retiring the Roadrunners in order with a pair of ground balls and his second strikeout of the day, turning the inning over to the ODU bats. Garriola and Coutney led off the bottom of the sixth with singles to bring up Petracci. The sophomore designated hitter laced a ball into right field to score Garriola. The hard-charging UTSA right fielder overran Petracci's single, allowing the ball to roll all the way to the wall. In the process, Coutney scored all the way from first, and Petracci moved to third on the error. Brock Gagliardi followed with a single to score Petracci and make the score 6-4. Levari closed out the scoring for the Monarchs with a sacrifice fly to bring home Thomas Wheeler.
Bashara's day ended after two innings of work. He struck out two and did not allow a baserunner. Hartline came on in the seventh and worked around a bloop single. He then sat down the side in the eighth, bookending a ground out with two strikeouts.
The two sides contest the rubber match of the series at noon on Sunday.
Baseball Edged by UTSA in Extras, 8-7
