By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA Roadrunners capped a strong week of play on Sunday with a 6-5 victory on the road against the Charlotte 49ers.
Playing four road games in the past six days, they won three of them, including an 8-7 victory in 12 innings last Tuesday over the eighth-ranked Texas Longhorns. They followed it up by winning two of three in Charlotte against the 49ers.
Charlotte started off strong in the first American Athletic Conference series of the season for both teams, winning 3-2 on Friday night.
Unfazed, UTSA pounded out 14 hits in a 10-3 victory on Saturday and then closed it out Sunday behind the hitting of Mason Lytle and James Taussig and the late-game, clutch pitching from Rob Orloski.
Lytle hit a two-run homer in a three-run fourth inning as the Roadrunners took the lead, 5-2. The 49ers, who have beaten the Roadrunners in conference tournament play in each of the past two seasons, kept chipping away and stayed in it until the end.
They scored two runs in the fifth inning and then added one in the eighth to tie the game when Orloski yielded a one-out, solo home run by Noah Furcht. Orloski, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Idaho, steadied himself and retired the next two batters to prevent further damage.
In the ninth, the Roadrunners took the lead for good. James Taussig rocketed a ball to the opposite field, into the left-center gap, for an RBI double. Caden Miller, who was running on the pitch, scored easily to make it 6-5.
UTSA coach Pat Hallmark stayed with Orloski in the bottom half of the ninth, and the strategy paid off. The big righthander retired three straight batters to pick up the victory.
With the win, the 2023 draft pick of the Boston Red Sox improved his record to 7-0 on the season. Coming into the game in the fifth inning to relieve starter Conor Myles, Orloski battled through some control problems to finish the game.
In 4 and 2/3 innings, he yielded one run on one hit and four walks. Orloski struck out two.
Records
UTSA 19-7, 2-1
Charlotte 11-11, 1-2
Coming up
Texas State at UTSA, Tuesday, 6 p.m.
Notable
In three games at Charlotte, UTSA’s Mason Lytle was tough at the plate, stroking seven hits in 15 at bats with two home runs. He had an inside-the-park homer on Friday night and then jerked one over the left field wall in Sunday’s finale for his fourth of the season. UTSA defense also showed up, committing only one error in 27 innings in the AAC series.