Stephen F. Austin Uses 18-Hit Attack to Get Past UTSA, 7-1
SAN MARCOS, Texas - No. 2 seed Stephen F. Austin used 18 hits to get past No. 6 seed UTSA, 7-1, Friday to get to within one win of playing for the 2011 Southland Conference Baseball Tournament title.
The Lumberjacks (36-21) had only two of those hits in the first three innings of the game and allowed UTSA to score its only run in the bottom of the third, but that only seemed to rile up the SFA offense, which got two runs in each of the fourth, fifth and eighth inning and a solo run in the seventh.
In a four-hit fourth inning, Riley Huble and Bryce Cummings each drove in runs. Jarid Scarafiotti hit a two-run home run in fifth. After he was hit by a pitch to lead off the seventh inning, he scored thanks to a sacrifice fly from Huble. Scarafiotti drove in another run in the eighth with a single to center field and Jackson Hood drove in Brad Oates to complete the scoring.
Scarafiotti was 3-for-4 with three RBI, though it was Hood, who led the Lumberjacks in hits, going 4-for-6. SFA also got multiple hits from Bryson Myles, Garrett Smith and Hunter Dozier.
Starting pitcher Chase Wier lasted until the sixth. He improved to 3-1 in getting the win in a game in which he allowed only one run on five hits. He walked three and struck out five before giving the ball to Alex Moshier who took it to the ninth for Landon Kozeny, who finished the game.
UTSA starter Taylor Walton took the loss, allowing four runs on eight hits in 4.2 innings. His record dipped to 6-7 after he struck out six and walked one.
His cause was aided by one run on only three hits by his offense, which finished the game with seven hits, including two each by Ryan Dalton and Jason Mohn.
UTSA (27-31) now slips into the losers' bracket, where it will play Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, the opponent it beat 3-2 in 10 innings to open the tournament. Win that game Friday at 9 a.m. and the Roadrunners will face Stephen F. Austin again, needing two wins to advance to the championship. Every game of the Southland Conference tournament is being streamed live on SLC NOW, which is free on Southland.org.
Game Seven Quotes
Stephen F. Austin Coach Johnny Cardenas
On starting pitcher Chase Weir
"We really felt like he was a good guy for us out of the bullpen but we went to him last night and asked how he felt about starting and he said, 'Coach, give me the ball and I'll give you everything I've got.'"
On his pitching staff
"Now our guys are on the full days rest like they're used to. Our starters should be able to start tomorrow and we feel confident in those guys being able to bounce back."
On the play of Jarid Scarafiotti
"That guy is a guy that as he's gone, we've gone. He showed up again and gave us a spark."
Stephen F. Austin Designated Hitter Jarid Scarafiotti
"It was a good team win again. We got a good start out of Chase Weir. We got everything we could ask out of him."
What he saw on the homer
"He threw me a first pitch change up and tried to bust me after with a fastball. I just got my hands there and got a good swing on it and the ball went out of the park."
On pressure to be aggressive at the plate
"We've had a good offense all year and that's what carried us. We have a bullpen that shut the door for us all year and our offensive did a good job. It was just a good team win all day."
Stephen F. Austin Starting Pitcher Chase Weir:
On Scarafiotti's blast
"When you get a big blast going and you go up by that much, it makes it a lot easier for everyone to relax and play the game. It turns the whole game around."
On the team playing its best baseball at the moment
"Right now, we're playing pretty good. We're going to keep rolling. We've still got two of our best pitchers left so we're not worried about that at all."
UTSA Coach Sherman Corbett
"They had a good approach at the plate. We just couldn't finish hitters off when we needed to. Either they made great adjustments or we just didn't make very good pitches when we got ahead in the count. I told our team in the beginning that we needed to get off to a quick start and put up some zeros, which we did, but the momentum kind of shifted to their side."
On Perucki batting in the second spot
"He had been hitting well so we thought we'd move James down to the middle of the order to give us some offensive punch there. Obviously we're trying to find a way to generate some offense and just weren't able to do it today."
On tomorrow
"We've got pitchers available but our margin for error is pretty thin as we get into the loser's bracket."