By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA Roadrunners kept the anxious moments to a minimum on Friday, riding the pitching of Conor Myles and Connor Kelley to a 4-0 victory over the Memphis Tigers in Clearwater, Fla.
Playing their first game in the American Baseball Championship on the third day of the tournament, the top-seeded Roadrunners cooled off a Tigers team that had won two in the last two days in the postseason event at BayCare Ballpark.
Myles and Kelley, perhaps the team’s top two pitchers, combined to hold the No. 5 seed Tigers to five hits as the Roadrunners cruised to their 37th win of the season and advanced in the winners bracket.
They’ll play the No. 2 seed East Carolina Pirates at 9 a.m. on Saturday (central time) for a berth in Sunday’s finals.
The Tigers, who beat the Roadrunners two out of three in Memphis two weeks ago, will play next on Friday night against the Wichita State Shockers in an elimination game.
Myles, named on Tuesday as the conference’s pitcher of the year, threw 101 pitches in five innings to earn the win. Allowing only two hits, he improved to 10-1.
The lefthander from Australia experienced some trouble with command early and ended up walking four.
But he consistently flummoxed Memphis hitters by hitting the top of the zone on two-strike counts. As a result, he fanned eight batters.
Kelley, a 6-foot-5 junior from Grand Oaks High School in Spring, threw 61 pitches and worked the last four innings for his first save. He allowed three hits and no walks while striking out four.
With one out in the ninth, Memphis threw a scare into UTSA by reaching base on an error and an infield single on consecutive at bats.
The error was charged to Kelley as he ran over to cover first base on a Shane Cox grounder to second, only to mishandle the throw from Jordan Ballin.
The next batter, Michael Gupton, used his speed to beat out a high-bouncing ground ball to Ballin at second. Gupton was awarded a hit after the throw pulled Caden Miller off the bag at first.
From there, Kelley escaped further damage, as Trae Cassidy lined out to left field and Tyler Harrington popped up to second to end the game.
Defensively, the play of the day for the Roadrunners may have been made by catcher Andrew Stucky, who threw out speedy Javon Hernandez in the third inning as he tried to steal second base.
Memphis, one of the most formidable base-stealing teams in the nation, ended the day 0-for-1 in stolen base attempts.
Drew Detlefsen, named Tuesday as the conference’s player of the year, served as a constant nuisance to Memphis pitching.
He hit the ball hard three times, notched two hits and drove in one run, his conference-leading 68th RBI of the season.
Detlefsen accounted for the first run of the game in the third inning when he ripped an RBI double to left field off Memphis starter Seth Garner.
Making his first start in the postseason, Eshelman had initiated the rally when he reached on a one-out double to left. He scored to make it 1-0 when Detlefsen’s drive one-hopped to the fence.
UTSA also scored runs on an RBI double by Christian Hallmark in the fourth, a sacrifice fly by Ballin in the sixth and an RBI single by Stucky in the seventh.
Garner (1-6) took the loss after allowing three runs on six hits through six innings.
Records
Memphis 24-33
UTSA 37-19
Coming up
East Carolina vs. UTSA, 9 a.m. (central) on Saturday, at Clearwater, Fla.
Notable
Earlier Friday, No. 2 East Carolina held off third-seeded Rice 4-3. Both UTSA and East Carolina were awarded double byes into the quarterfinals this year as the top two seeds in the original eight-team field.
In the first of two Friday afternoon/evening elimination games, the fourth-seeded UAB Blazers defeated the No. 3 Rice Owls 9-6.
Alex Dupuy’s solo home run sparked a four-run ninth for the Blazers, who advanced to play next against either Memphis or Wichita State.
UAB improved to 1-1 in Clearwater, and now the Blazers need to win twice on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s title game.
The Owls scored three runs in the seventh and two in the eighth for a 6-5 advantage, but they couldn’t hold on.
As a result, they were ousted from the tournament with their second loss of the day and a 1-2 record in Clearwater.
Rice’s first full season under Coach David Pierce likely is over. The Owls, who surged at the end of the season to claim third place in the regular season, fell to 35-24 overall.
American Baseball Championship
At Clearwater, Fla.
(All times central)
Wednesday
Game 1 – No. 7 Wichita State beats No. 6 FAU, 3-2
Game 2 – No. 5 Memphis beats No. 8 Charlotte, 13-9
Thursday
Game 3 – No. 3 Rice beats No. 7 Wichita State, 5-4
Game 4 – No. 5 Memphis beats No. 4 UAB, 7-3
Friday
Game 5 – No. 2 East Carolina beats No. 3 Rice, 4-3
Game 6 – No. 1 UTSA beats No. 5 Memphis, 4-0
Game 7 – No. 4 UAB beats No. 3 Rice, 9-6 (Rice is eliminated)
Game 8 – No. 7 Wichita State vs. No. 5 Memphis, late
Saturday
Game 9 – No. 2 East Carolina vs. No. 1 UTSA, 9 a.m.
Game 10 – UAB vs. Game 8 winner, 47 minutes afterward
Game 11 – Game 10 winner vs. Game 9 loser, 47 minutes afterward
Sunday
Game 12 – Game 9 winner vs. Game 11 winner, 11 a.m.
Eliminated
Rice, FAU, Charlotte
Records
UTSA 37-19
East Carolina 34-21-1
Rice 35-24
UAB 32-25
Memphis 24-33
FAU 28-28
Wichita State 29-28
Charlotte 28-28
.