Facing elimination from the 2011 South Central Regional and the end of the season, the University of the Incarnate Word faced off against Tarleton State on Friday with both teams needing a win.
Incarnate Word (36-17) shook off the negative feelings left over from Thursday night's 12-inning, 6-5 loss to St. Mary's University and defeated the Texans, 8-4, to stay alive to play another day.
“I'm glad for the way we bounced back today after a tough game the night before a really short turnaround,” head coach Danny Heep said.
UIW jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the second inning by playing small ball – getting walks or singles and bunting players into scoring position – and extended their lead to 5-0 in third inning the same way. Derrick Walls scored teammate Daniel Qualls with an RBI single; John Zule scored Matt Flores from second with a single that was deep enough to allow Flores to round the corner. Flores scored by avoiding the tag at home with a slide that took him wide enough to avoid the glove and swung his arm around to the plate.
Walls added the third run of the inning, running home on a wild pitch to put the score at 5-0.
In the 6th inning, Zule struck again, this time blasting a pitch over the 360-foot sign of the left field fence for a two-run bomb and a 7-0 lead.
Jorge Guarneros pitched 7 1/3 innings to get the victory and improve his record to 11-1 this season. He had four strikeouts and didn't allow a hard collision at first base in the second inning to stop his effective pitching.
The “car wreck,” as Heep described it, happened when Guarneros ran to cover first for Matt Roohan, who had knocked down a hard hit about 15 feet off the bag. The pitcher and the runner got the bag at the same time and Guarneros took a foot to the face and on his pitching hand. After a delay to check if he was okay, he stayed in the game as long as he could and dealt with the pain.
“I was just trying to get the out,” he said after the game. “It was a routine play and nothing intentional – just a part of baseball. I was able to go, so I stayed in. My hand started swelling up and I had trouble feeling the ball (in the later innings), so I turned it over to our bullpen.”
Heep was very complimentary of the fortitude his starting pitcher showed.
“Not too many people get in a car wreck and keep pitching and that's the kind of toughness we need right now.”
In fact, the only mistake Guarneros seemed to make was a pitch in the top of the seventh that was hit over the left side outfield wall and ended the shutout bid for the junior Cardinal pitcher.
Tarleton added three runs in the top of the 8th against Matt Hickman (who took over for Guarneros), although two of those runs came off an error at third base that careened out into foul territory. The score was 8-4 when UIW finally out a stop to things with a double-play.
Zule finished the day going 4-for-4 with 3 RBI. Walls was 2-for-5 with an RBI and Daniel Qualls, Ryan Flowers and Matt Flores each had a RBI. Flowers and Flores each had two hits as well.
UIW will play at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, taking on the loser of either Central Missouri or Emporia State University (who play the late game Friday night). As was the case on Thursday, the loser of Saturday's game will see their season end.
We played both of those teams last year (in the 2010 Regional Championship),” Heep commented. “This is where the guys in our bullpen need to step up for us. We can't rely on (Kirk) Jewasko and Jorge in a six-team tournament.”
