SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – For the second straight game, the University of the Incarnate Word baseball team was a walk-off winner.
Bryce Shepherd (Coldspring/Coldspring-Oakhurst HS), who came in as a late defensive replacement in the top of the tenth inning, hit a single to right center field to score
Christian Divelbiss (Yuba City, CA/Yuba City HS) to beat Central Arkansas 8-7 Saturday at Sullivan Field.
The Cardinals (17-27, 8-15 SLC) have now won four consecutive Southland Conference games and this one come in dramatic fashion. Tyler Langley hit the first pitch of the ball game over the left-center field wall to give the Bears a quick 1-0 lead. UCA (23-17, 13-10 SLC) ended up scoring five runs in the top of the first inning and they forced the Cardinals to go to their bullpen before the first out was recorded.
What looked to be like an easy win for the Bears turned into a tough extra inning loss for the visiting team. UIW chipped away with two runs in the second inning on a 2-run home run by
Jesse Hoover (Marion/Marion HS) and later scored three runs in the fourth to make it 6-5 in favor of UCA. The 3-run rally started with a lead-off home run from
Brance Kahle (Colleyville/Grapevine Faith HS), his third of the season, and
Mark Whitehead (San Antonio/Johnson HS) and
Austin Hoffman (Goodyear, AZ/Millenium HS) followed by driving in a run each.
The Cardinals took their first lead of the game in the fifth inning with an
Aaron Warren (Schertz/Wagner HS) bases-loaded walk and an RBI ground out from Whitehead.
UCA quickly tied it in the top of the sixth when Brad Dillenberger hit an RBI single, and that would be the last run of the game until the 10th inning.
Warren continued his scorching hot streak at the plate with four more hits and two walks in six plate appearances. He is now 11-of-14 in the last three games and has collected four hits in back-to-back games. Divelbiss, Hoover and
Trey Rodriguez (Corpus Christi/Carroll HS) all collected three hits apiece and combined to score six of the Cardinals eight runs. Whitehead was hitless in the game, but did contribute with two runs batted in and scored a run. Hoffman collected two hits, drove in a run and made more than a few great defensive plays at shortstop to help out the Cardinals pitching staff.
Trevor Hardee (Alvord/Alvord HS) earned his fourth win of the season, and second consecutive straight, with one inning of scoreless relief allowing only one hit and striking out one.
Tyler Miller (Conroe/Oak Ridge HS),
Adam Hunter (Yoakum/Yoakum HS) and Hardee combined to pitch 4.1 innings of relief without allowing a run and gave UIW a chance to win the game.
Ty Tice was tabbed with the loss going 1.1 innings while allowing two hits and one run. Five Bears hitters collected two hits, including Dillenberger who also pushed across two runs and scored once.
The teams combined to leave 31 runners on base in the 10 innings. UIW left 16 and UCA left 15 of base. The Cardinals totaled eight runs on 19 hits and two errors, while the Bears scored seven runs on 12 hits and committed one error.
The Cardinals will look for their first conference sweep of the year on Sunday at 1 p.m. They will send
Brandon Anderson (1-4, 5.23) to the mound against Riley Nichols (3-2, 3.00).
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