March 18, 2006

Box Score

The University of Arkansas - Little Rock overcame a 1-0 deficit in the eighth inning en route to claiming a 2-1 victory over the UTPA diamondmen in 10 innings on Saturday (Mar. 18) in Little Rock, AR.

With the four-game sweep, the Trojans upped their record to 17-9 on the season while the Broncs saw their record to fall to 11-17.

The Broncs struck first on the scoreboard when senior Louie Alamia (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) drilled his first home run of the season in the top half of the sixth inning. Prior to Alamia's blast, the Broncs only managed three hits off of Trojan starter Grant Gatlin.

UTPA starter Ricky Ibarz (Caracas, Venezuela/New Mexico J.C.) held the offense of the Trojans in silence as he threw 7.0 scoreless innings while hitting down 10 hitters and allowing two hits in the contest. In the eighth inning, UALR received its biggest hit of the game when Tyler Mason connected on a solo home run off of Broncs' reliever Ronnie Morales (Great Falls, MT/Barton County C.C.).

With the score tied at 1-1 heading into the 10th inning, the Broncs had an opportunity to break open the game by loading the bases with no outs. However - UALR reliever Dustin Turner quickly turned a Broncs' advantage into a disadvantage as he recorded three consecutive outs, including a botched suicide-squeeze and a pair of strikeouts.

In the bottom half of the 10th inning, sophomore Tim Haines (Mission, TX/Blinn College) took to the mound where he quickly got the first two hitters of the frame out before allowing a single to right field by Ryan Gotcher. After a single by Derek Eilers, the Trojans had runners on first and third with two outs when Mitchell Webb came to pinch hit for Turner.

Webb connected on a soft grounder to second base where UTPA junior T.J. Gilmer (Forney, TX/Forney H.S.) fielded the ball cleanly, but delivered an errant throw to first base. The throwing error allowed Gotcher to score from third base, giving the Trojans a four-game sweep of the visiting Broncs.

Gotcher finished with two hits for the Trojans while Turner posted the victory and upped his record to 4-1 on the season.

Alamia and Jason Buhagiar (Penngrove, CA/Santa Rosa J.C.) each added two hits in the game. Haines suffered the loss for the Broncs and dropped his record to 2-4 on the season.

The Broncs will return to the diamond on Tuesday (Mar. 21) in San Marcos, TX, against Texas State University. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m.

UTPA Sports Information