Saturday's series-ending matchup for UIW's baseball team on the road against East Central University was a battle to the end as Incarnate Word held off a late comeback attempt to preserve a 3-2 victory and extend the Cardinals' winning streak to twelve games.
Incarnate Word (31-12 overall, 22-8 in the Lone Star Conference) and the Tigers were tied at 0-0 through five innings until UIW scored three runs off a four-hit sixth inning, starting off with a Steven Vidaurri single. Vidaurri then advanced to third when Matt Roohan doubled down the leftfield line, putting runners in scoring position for Mike De La Rosa. De La Rosa then scored both Roohan and Vidaurri by hitting a single before he too reached home on an RBI single by Jackson Woodruff.
Up 3-1 in the ninth, Incarnate Word survived a scare as ECU scored a run on an RBI single and then managed to load the bases with two outs. Closer Elroy Urbina, who'd been out on the mound for the Cardinals since the start of the 8th inning, then got the Tigers' last hope for a tie or win to strike out to earn his 12th save of the year.
Starting pitcher Marc Gomez went four innings and struck out five batters. Ethan Lutz took over in the fifth and went three innings before Urbina took over, striking out four Tigers in nine batters-faced.
Incarnate Word heads across town to take on St. Mary's University on Tuesday evening as the last non-conference and road game of the 2011 season. The Rattlers defeated UIW, 11-8, at Sullivan Field early in the season and the Cardinals will be looking to get some payback.
UIW wraps up the 2011 regular season with a three-game, Lone Star Conference series against Southeastern Oklahoma State University at Sullivan Field, starting with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Friday.
