Box Score

SAN ANTONIO - The Louisiana Tech baseball team rallied back from an early five-run deficit, and held on, taking an 8-7 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners on Friday evening at Roadrunner Field.

"We had some good at-bats tonight," head coach Lane Burroughs said. "We faced a good arm, but I thought our guys did a good job of grinding him down, and making him throw a lot of pitches. Our guys held the rope, persevered, and showed a lot of toughness tonight."

LA Tech (23-9, 8-2 C-USA) was led by a career-high four RBI from Mason Mallard, and a pair of hits and two RBI from leadoff man Hunter Wells.

Senior right-hander Kent Hasler notched a four-out save, wrapping up his fifth save of the 2018 campaign. Fellow senior Graham Ahlrich (1-0) picked up the win in relief, tossing a season-high 1.2 innings, while allowing just one hit and striking out one.

Tech starting pitcher Matt Miller made it through just 2.1 innings, his shortest start of the season, allowing 5 runs on four hits. Miller walked one, and hit three Roadrunners. However, the Tech picked up their Friday-night starter, bridging the gap of the final seven innings, combining to allow just two runs the rest of the way.

Casey Sullivan pitched a scoreless third inning, and struck out one, while Ben Stiglets went two and two-thirds, allowing a pair of hits and also striking out one, in a scoreless outing.

"Sully held the rope for us, and I thought Stiglets came in and absolutely calmed the storm for us," Burroughs added. We didn't have a chance to win if it weren't for him coming in and weathering the storm for us tonight. I thought Graham Ahlrich looked like the Graham Ahlrich of old. The ball was exploding out of his hand and he was electric. Hasler threw as hard as he has all year, and closed it out for us. Both teams pitched a lot of guys - not really what you want on a Friday night, but you do whatever you can to win the ballgame.

Facing an early 5-0 deficit, shortstop Dalton Skelton got the Bulldogs on the board in the top of the fourth, crushing the first pitch he saw into deep right field, for his fourth home run of his senior campaign. The blast seemingly gave the Tech offense new life against UTSA starter, Karan Patel, who cruised through the first four innings, relatively unscathed.

However, in the top of the fifth, Mason Robinson got the inning started with a leadoff single. Logan Bailey then drew a walk, after a Chris Clayton flyout. Taylor Young struck out swinging, and with two outs, and runners on first and second, Hunter Wells gave the Tech offense the big hit it was looking for.

The sophomore leadoff man singled up the middle on the eighth pitch of his at-bat, bringing home Robinson. The ball was bobbled in center by UTSA's Chase Keng, allowing Bailey to also come home and advancing Wells to second. Still trailing by two, the Bulldogs kept churning with two outs, as Skelton walked on four pitches, chasing Patel.

Mason Mallard greeted the new UTSA reliever Andre Shewcraft by driving the first pitch into left center, scoring Wells, and drawing the Bulldogs to within one.

Both teams were held off the scoreboard in the sixth, before the top of the seventh, when Mason Mallard once again took the very first pitch from a new UTSA reliever (Palmer Wenzel) back up the middle for an RBI single, scoring Wells, and tying the game at five.

In the eighth, Tech quickly loaded the bases with nobody out via a leadoff single from new catcher Jonathan Parker, followed by a Bailey HBP and a perfectly-placed bunt single up the first-base line from Taylor Young. Wells then flied out to left field, but deep enough to allow Parker to come home on the RBI, breaking the 5-5 gridlock. Skelton was then hit by a pitch, loading the bases for Mallard, who took an 0-1 pitch into left for a two-RBI single, scoring both Bailey and Young. After the three spot, Tech owned an 8-5 lead over the Roadrunners, who were suddenly down to six outs to make up three runs.

UTSA made things interesting in the bottom of the eighth, after a pair of men reached with two outs. Braxton Smith entered the game in relief of Ahlrich, and gave up an RBI single to the leadoff man Bryan Arias, and walked the number three hitter Trent Bowles with the bases loaded.

With Tech now clinging to an 8-7 lead, coach Burroughs made the call to Hasler, who caught the cleanup man Ben Brookover looking on a nasty breaking ball, leaving the bases loaded. Hasler worked around a two-out walk in the ninth, and earned the four-out save in closing out the win.

Tech and UTSA will return for game two tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. Due to other athletic events on USTA's campus, the game will not be live streamed on CUSA.tv. However, the contest will still be broadcast on SportsTalk 97.7 and through the LA Tech x Mobile App, with Dave Nitz on the call. Follow @LATechBSB on Twitter for in-game updates.