April 29, 2006

Box Score

Louie Alamia (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) broke the UTPA program record for consecutive games with a base-hit on Saturday (Apr. 29) as the Broncs came away from the twin-bill with one win and one loss.

UTPA 2, Coastal Carolina University 1
Alamia led the game off with a double to right center field but the Broncs were unable to get him across the plate in the first inning. Neither team scored a run until the seventh inning when the Chanticleers scored their only run on a Chris Raber sacrifice fly to left field.

The Broncs finally got a run across in the top of the eighth inning when Alamia led the inning off with a walk followed by a bunt single by T.J. Gilmer (Forney, TX/Forney H.S.). Alamia then advanced to third on a wild pickoff attempt and scored on an Osiel Flores (Mission, TX/UT-Brownsville) single through the left side.

Bronc starter Dane Mason (Marlton, NJ/Oklahoma State) was tough the whole day, holding the Chanticleers to just one run while pitching 10 innings. In the 11th, Zach Smith (Sanger, TX/Sanger H.S.) reached on a lead-off walk and advanced to third thanks to a throwing error by the CCU pitcher on a Brady Honeycutt (Rosebudd, TX/Rosebudd-Lott H.S.) sacrifice bunt. Two batters later, Leighton Autrey (Stephenville, TX/Navarro J.C.) drove a single through the left side of the infield to score Smith and give the Broncs a 2-1 lead.

Ronnie Morales (Great Falls, MT/Barton County C.C.) came in to retire the left-handed DJ Burns and then Tim Haines (Mission, TX/Blinn College) came in to record the final two outs and earn his ninth save of the season. Haines, who already owns the all-time saves record, is now tied with former Bronc Ricky Broyles for most saves in a season.

Mason improved his record to 7-4 on the season with the victory. The senior allowed just one earned run while scattering nine hits. He struck out three and walked three in the longest outing of his career.

Coastal Carolina University 9, UTPA 7
The Broncs took the lead in the first inning as Alamia drew a lead-off walk and score two batters later on a Flores double to left center field. The 1-0 lead didn't last long as the Chanticleers pounded out five hits in the bottom half of the inning, scoring four runs and taking a 4-1 lead.

In the second, UTPA scored a pair of runs on back-to-back RBI singles by Autrey and Alamia to pull the score to 4-3. With his single, Alamia hit safely in 23 straight games, breaking the program record for consecutive games with a hit.

Coastal Carolina answered right back in the bottom of the second, scoring two runs off starter Ricky Ibarz (Caracas, Venezuela/New Mexico J.C.) to extending the lead to 6-3. The Broncs continued to battle at the plate, pushing a run across in the fifth on a Smith single in to center field that plated Flores from third.

The Broncs tied the game in the seventh with two runs on two hits and one CCU error. The Chanticleers answered with two runs of their own in the seventh off reliever Aaron Guerra (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg H.S.) to go up 8-6.

UTPA pulled within one in the eighth when Joshua Talley (Great Falls, MT/New Mexico J.C.) singled through the right side to score Alamia from third. The Chanticleers added a run in the bottom of the eighth to take a 9-7 lead which was the final.

Guerra suffered the loss for UTPA, allowing three earned runs in one inning of work. He allowed just one hit but walked four. The senior is now 2-5 this season.

Alamia was 1-for-3 in the first game with a double and one run scored. He followed up that performance with another 1-for-3 game to break the record. In game two he scored two more runs and drove in one. The current streak is the fourth double-digit hitting streak of his career and his third of 20 or more games.

Flores was 4-for-10 on the day with two runs batted in and one run scored. Patrick Brooks collected hits in both games, going 3-for-8 and scoring one run.

The Broncs record is now 21-26 for the season while the Chanticleers improve to 20-23.

UTPA has two days off before beginning a two-game series in Houston, TX with the Texas Southern Tigers on Tuesday (May 2) at 3:00 p.m.

UTPA Sports Information