STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Tarleton broke a 4-4 tie with Incarnate Word in the ninth inning when
Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo hit a sacrifice fly to right field that scored
Alec Williams from third and gave the Texans a 5-4 walk-off win on Saturday afternoon.
Tarleton (13-6) secured the series win over former WAC foe UIW (10-9) with the win Saturday and have won the last seven games over the Cardinals.
Heading into the ninth inning with a tie, the Texans needed a lone run to end the game.
Jack Wagner led off with a walk and Williams entered to pinch run for him. Williams then stole second and advanced to third on a UIW throwing error with no outs.
Cris Enriquez walked in the next at bat, followed by the Cardinals intentionally walking
Kooper Shook to load the bases. The next Texan struck out, but then it was Choy Foo's turn. He hit a ball to right field and Williams booked it home, sliding in for the winning run.
Trailing 4-2 in the bottom of the fifth, the Texans came through with three hits and two runs to tie the game at four. Wagner led off with an infield single, Enriquez singled through the right side and Shook hit an RBI single through the left side to score Wagner and make it 4-3.
Payton Pennington laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Enriquez to third base where he later scored off a wild pitch to tie the game at four.
Zane Badmaev pitched 3.0 scoreless innings, from the sixth through the eighth, completely shutting down the Cardinals. The big righty struck out a career-high eight, walked none and allowed just two hits.
Reece Elston (W, 2-0) picked up his second win of the season as he pitched the ninth keeping UIW off the board.
Mason Hammonds and Enriquez each contributed two hits.
Trace Morrison, Shook and Choy Foo posted an RBI each.
UIW took an early 3-0 lead after scoring a run in the second and two in the third. Tarleton got its first two runs of the game in the bottom of the third as Morrison singled in Hammonds, who previously tripled, to make it 3-1. Morrison then came home as UIW attempted to throw out
Cris Enriquez at second base to trim the UIW lead to a run.
Dylan Delvecchio was Tarleton's starting pitcher and tossed 4.0 innings allowing four runs on four hits. He struck out six and walked six.
Zach Poe entered in the fifth inning for Delvecchio with two runners on and no outs and faced just three batters.
The Texans will look to complete their third series sweep of the season on Sunday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. on ESPN+.
