Box Score

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – In a defensive game, UTSA outlasted Texas State to win the series opener Friday night, 3-2. The Roadrunners used two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth on just six hits en route to the conference win. Meanwhile, Texas State tallied 11 hits but just one run in the second and one in the eighth.
 
Andrew Stumph paced the Bobcats with a 2-for-3 night with a walk and a run scored while Ben McElroy and Colby Targun also finished with two hits. Four other Bobcats knocked a hit, but TXST left seven on base.
 
Lucas Humpal started and went 5.2 innings, giving up five hits, three runs, two earned with three walks and four strikeouts. But four of those hits and two of the walks came in the fifth and sixth innings. Covey Morrow, Austen Williams and Donnie Hart all pitched in relief to finish out the game with four combined strikeouts and just one hit.
 
Texas State jumped on the board first. Stumph ripped one down the left line for a standup double to start the second inning, and Garrett Mattlage sacrifice bunted him over to third. Targun followed with a two-out single to right field to plate Stumph and claim an early 1-0 lead for the Bobcats.
 
The Bobcats didn't allow UTSA to get anything started in response in the bottom of the inning, forcing three up, three down. Mattlage ended the inning with a nice play ranging over to the middle of the field to scoop a grounder up and make the throw in time. He made an even more impressive defensive play in the third, diving to his left on a grounder up the middle. With the impressive stop, the throw was in plenty of time for the out in another 1-2-3 inning defensively for Texas State.
 
Mattlage kept his strong defensive play going when he made another diving play in the bottom of the fifth, this time to catch a pop up for an out. He sprinted from his setup spot to behind third base and dove just past where the infield dirt meets the grass for the second out of the inning. Unfortunately, it didn't end the inning as UTSA's leadoff hitter Riley Good hit a two-out RBI single through the right side to tie the game. The Roadrunners scored one more before the inning was over to snag a 2-1 lead.
 
UTSA stacked two good innings together, adding a run in the sixth. All three runs in the fifth and sixth innings came with two outs. John Welborn knocked a hit to left field to score Mike Warren, who reached on an error.
 
Mattlage came through on the offensive side in the top of the eighth inning. With two outs and two runners, he hit a ball to shallow centerfield to score Morgan Mickan, closing the deficit to 3-2. The hit pushed Mattlage's streak of games in which he reached base to 21 consecutive games.
 
Hart entered the game in the eighth inning and got the three outs Texas State needed for a last chance push in the ninth. Unfortunately, the Bobcats couldn't get anything going with three consecutive outs.
 
Texas State and UTSA will continue the I-35 Rivalry with games at 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday. Taylor Black is scheduled to take the mound Saturday with Mitchell Pitts scheduled to start Sunday.