SAN ANTONIO — A pair of costly walks and pair of home runs by UTSA proved to be just more than Central Arkansas could overcome on Friday as the Bears fell 4-3 to the Roadrunners in the opening game of the 2012 Southland Conference Softball Tournament at Roadrunner Field.
With the loss, the 5th-seeded Bears will face the loser of the No. 2 Sam Houston State vs. No. 3 McNeese State game tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. in an elimination game.
The Bears (36-21) fell behind early on Friday as UTSA (24-26) took the lead in the first inning when Nikki Goff drew an RBI walk following three straight Roadrunner singles. They extended the lead to 3-0 in the third after Megan Low drew a walk and Caitlyn Ivy followed with her fourth home run of the season.
UCA retaliated quickly in the following inning – answering with a two-run shot by freshman second baseman Tiffany Roby, her seventh home run of the year, after junior third baseman Melissa Bryant had reached base when she was hit by a pitch from UTSA's Haylee Staton.
Unfortunately for the Bears, the Roadrunners had an answer of their own in the bottom half of the fourth when designated player Alaina Byars led off with her third home run of the year and what would prove to be the winning run, giving UTSA a 4-2 edge.
Kelley Martino then came on in relief of Kelsie Armstrong and threw three scoreless innings, but the Bears were unable to produce enough offense to regain the lead.
The Bears did cut their deficit in half in the fifth inning, manufacturing a run on a Melissa Bryant sacrifice fly to score pinch runner Kelvon Greer to make it 4-3. That would turn out to be the final score in the game, as UCA was unable to take advantage of back-to-back two-out hits by Katie McGregor and Nicole Beals in the fifth and then went hitless in the sixth and seventh innings. Freshman shortstop Lissa Avitia reached on an error to lead off the UCA half of the sixth, but the Bears were then retired in order the rest of the way.
Armstrong (22-14) took the loss for UCA, giving up four earned runs and walking two while striking out none in three innings of work. Martino allowed four hits and no runs in her three innings, and also recorded zero strikeouts. It was the first time in 74 games, dating back to April of last season, that the UCA pitching staff did not register a strikeout.
Staton improved to 15-7 with the win, throwing all seven innings and allowing six hits, three earned runs, three walks and striking out five. Both teams left seven runners on base.
