UTSA Defeats Northwestern State, 5-4, in Bottom of the Ninth
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas ? UTSA right-fielder Tyler Carpenter delivered the game-winning run with two out in the bottom of the ninth with a single to right to lift the Roadrunners to a 5-4 victory over Northwestern State in the opening game of the 2009 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament at Whataburger Field.
UTSA (32-22) had built a 3-0 lead through seven innings only to see the Demons rally to take a 4-3 lead in the top of the eighth. Northwestern (26-25) second baseman Chase Lyles, who garnered national player of the week honors from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper on Monday, singled to left to drive in two and complete the comeback.
In the bottom of the ninth, the Roadrunners got a lead-off double from designated hitter Brett Aguilar, who moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by third baseman Lance Brown. Catcher Ryan Rummel tied the game with a single through the left side. He moved to second on a wild pitch before an intentional walk put two on. Then after a fly out, Carpenter’s shallow single scored Rummel for UTSA’s 19th come-from-behind victory of the season.
The Roadrunners have won each of their last three games in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Brown and Jose Hernandez, who hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the seven, each had two hits for the Roadrunners, who out hit Northwestern, 8-6. Eric DeBlanc led the Demons with two hits.
UTSA starter Red Patterson struck out six in 7 1/3 innings before handing the game over to Matt Crocker, who improved to 6-1 with the win. Chad Sheppard took the loss for Northwestern. It was his first loss of the season (4-1).
The tournament continues this afternoon with No. 2 Southeastern Louisiana facing No. 7 seed Sam Houston State.
Live stats as well as streaming video and audio are available on SLC NOW on the Southland Conference web site at www.southland.org.
POSTGAME QUOTES
UTSA Head Coach
“Obviously it was a very exciting game and exciting finish, a little closer than we wanted. We came through with some big hits in the end, had some opportunities early in the game that we didn’t take advantage of. We kept battling, especially when we got behind, to tie the game and put some quality at bats together to get the game-winning hit by (Tyler) Carpenter.
“You want to be in the winner’s bracket, it makes it much easier. It gives us some momentum. We played well early on for the most part, Northwestern State just had one inning where they put some hits together. You have to give them credit for taking the lead. You are going to see a lot of those games in the tournament with the games being decided in the final innings.”
“One of the things you want of a team is a never say die attitude. We had some adversity at the end of the game but our guys overcame that and really got focused. They did a lot of good things after we got behind to overcome that adversity.”
UTSA outfielder Tyler Carpenter (on game-winning hit)
“My approach was I was trying to stay to the right side, to give the runner a chance to get around third and score on a hit to the outfield. I was pretty sure he was going to come with a fastball again, and he threw a fastball outside and I just took it that way and got it into the outfield.”
UTSA starting pitcher Red Patterson (on four-run inning by Northwestern State)
“I think a lot of it had to do with tiredness, I don’t think the extended inning hurt me sitting in the dugout. My legs got tired and started to go, I was on cruise control and doing fine, but I got out there and it all caught up to me a little bit. I didn’t make some good pitches and they took advantage of it and put some hits together.”
Northwestern State Head Coach J.P. Davis
“This was kind of an interesting game, all the little things counted. When they scored that first run, he kind of just flicked it down the line and that was a big pitch that we made a mistake on. We were in trouble all day long. Zimmerman did a nice job of pitching out of trouble. Offensively, we didn’t adjust early. We had one threat where we had first and second with two outs and we shouldn’t have tried stealing right there. We managed to battle back after giving up the home run and we pulled Zimmerman after he got tired. UTSA is a very good hitting team, they hit mistakes. They have done it all year. We came back and Chase got a big hit and we got out of a jam late in the game. If you keep getting yourself in trouble, sooner or later it is going to get you, and that is what happened in the end.”
“We got a couple of guys on, first and second with nobody out. Meyer got a big hit down the line to get us going. Lyles came up, and he has been white-hot lately, they pitched him really tough today but he did it when it counted. We took the lead and it was a nice inning, especially after struggling the first six innings.”
Northwestern State second baseman Chase Lyles
“I knew he had been throwing inside with fastballs a lot. He stuck with it pretty much, he made good pitches and he threw a breaking ball after I got it to a full count that missed a little bit over the plate where I was lucky enough to get enough of the barrel on it to get it down the line.”