Box Score

On a night when their pitching recorded 18 strikeouts, the Dallas Baptist Patriot (21-21, 8-8) offense was not able to garner enough support of their staff in falling to UT-San Antonio (22-18, 7-8), 5-4, in thirteen innings. Jake Johansen picked up ten of those strikeouts in seven innings of work while allowing four runs on eleven hits and relievers Jay Calhoun and Michael Smith struck out two and six, respectively, in their time on the mound. It was Smith (5-5) who was saddled with the hard luck loss after surrendering a two-out homerun in the thirteenth inning, his only blemish in five innings on the mound.
 
For the offense, Michael Miller had four of the ten team hits on the night and Duncan McAlpine had the only other multi-hit night. The Patriots scored all their runs in the first three innings before being stymied by a pair of Roadrunner relievers for the final eight innings.
 
Dallas Baptist opened the scoring in the first inning, tallying three runs before UTSA starter Brock Hartson could record the first out. Boomer Collins singled ahead of a Ronnie Mitchell walk and both runners scored on a Michael Miller double past the outstreached glove of third baseman RJ Perucki. For Miller, it was his fourteenth double of the season which ties him with Collins for tops on the team. He scored as Duncan McAlpine singled softly to centerfield – the fourth straight Patriot to reach in the first. Hartson would settle down and not allow any more damage in the frame.
 
UTSA would strike back in the second off Johansen. The Roadrunners scored two runs on four hits, a wild pitch, and an error on the righthanded hurler to cut the DBU lead to one.
 
The teams traded runs in the third. UTSA tied the game as a one-out walk came around to score but, in the bottom of the inning, DBU regained the lead with back-to-back doubles by Miller and McAlpine to lead off the inning. The Patriots were not able to score McAlpine, however, after two fly balls and a strikeout. That would allow the Roadrunners to tie the game at four in the fifth with a single run off Johansen.
 
Johansen gave way to Jay Calhoun to start the eighth after Johansen put zeroes on the board in the sixth and seventh. He left after throwing 116 pitches, 80 of which went for strikes. Calhoun came on and threw a perfect eighth before hitting Riley Good with a two-strike pitch to open the ninth. Michael Smith came on in relief of Calhoun with the runner at first and nobody out and fielded a sacrifice bunt before two strikeouts ended the frame with the go-ahead run at second. With a fist pump and a shout, Smith exited the field and left it up to his offense to win the game. They received a two-out, pinch hit single from KJ Alexander but nothing further to send the game to extra frames.
 
Both teams wasted opportunities in the tenth. Smith allowed two singles in the top half of the stanza but struck out John Bormann to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, Mitchell picked up a leadoff walk but was erased after a flyout and a double play groundout to second.  It was more of the same in the 11^th inning as both teams wasted baserunners – the Roadrunners with a line out double play and the Patriots not able to take advantage of a two out walk.
 
The twelfth was uneventful as DBU was set down in order and Smith quickly got two outs in the thirteenth. That's when the Patriot reliever made his first mistake of the contest and hung a slider to the leadoff hitter Good, who deposited it over the rightfield wall to give UTSA a one run lead.
 
That was enough for UTSA reliever Matt Sims in the bottom of the inning as he pitched around a leadoff infield single from Miller to secure the 5-4 win. The Patriots and Roadrunners will face off again on Saturday with a 2:00 pm start. Cy Sneed will take the ball for DBU and the Patriot Pregame Show will begin at 1:35 pm on dbupatriots.com/showcase.