BEAUMONT, Texas – Brynn Baca extended her streak of reaching base safely to 19 games, but the Lamar University Cardinals saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end as the UTSA Roadrunners rallied for a 6-5 win at the LU Softball Complex on Tuesday.
 
Baca went 1-fr-3 with a triple, a walk, an RBI and two runs scored, but the Cardinals (13-14) couldn't hold on to a 5-4 lead heading into the seventh inning.
 
"It's disappointing," LU coach Holly Bruder said. "When you have a lead going into the seventh inning with your ace pitching, you expect to win. We knew their top of the order was going to challenge us in the seventh inning. I thought we were going to be up to that challenge; unfortunately, we weren't."
 
UTSA (12-17) started the rally with a pair of infield singles Lindsey Stewart and Celeste Loughman. Kylee Rodriguez followed with a single that deflected off the glove of pitcher Ciara Luna and bounced through the left side to plate Stewart with the tying run. Anissa Rodriguez came in to relieve Luna and was rudely greeted by Randee Crawford, who singled to right field to score Loughman with what proved to be the winning run.
 
Rodriguez retired the next three batters, but the damage had been done.
 
"We've had trouble closing out games all season," Bruder lamented. "We had that problem all through February, and we have it again on March 21."
 
The Roadrunners took a 3-0 lead in the top of the first before Luna (3-8) could retire a batter. Stewart blooped a single that hit the chalk on the left-field line. Loughman followed with an infield single before Kylee Rodriguez hit her eighth home run of the season, blasting a shot over the wall in left field.
 
The Cardinals quickly battled back, scoring a run in the first when Ashley McDowell scored on an error, and tying it in the third as Baca tripled home Brittany Rodriguez before scoring on a Kelly Meeuwsen sacrifice fly.
 
UTSA regained the lead in the fifth on an unearned run before the Cardinals took the lead with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Shelby Henderson's single tied the game at 4 before Sable Hankins lofted a sacrifice fly to score Meeuwsen.
 
That's the way the score stood until the Roadrunners staged their seventh-inning rally. LU attempted to mount a comeback on a two-out single by Hankins in the bottom of the seventh, but she was left stranded.
 
"I thought our hitters did enough to win today," Bruder said. "We scored five runs, which should be enough, but our defense and pitching faltered today."
 
Meeuwsen and Hankins each had two hits for the Cardinals.
 
Lizzy Fox (9-11), the third UTSA pitcher used, got the win in relief, allowing one hit over 1 2/3 shutout innings.
 
Luna was saddled with the loss, allowing 10 hits and six runs, five earned in six-plus innings.
 
UP NEXT: The Cardinals are at Stephen F. Austin for a three-game Southland Conference series this weekend. The teams are slated to play a single game at 3 p.m. Friday and a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday. LU returns home to host Alcorn State in a non-conference doubleheader at noon March 29.
 
TICKETS: For tickets for all LU home games, call 409-880-1715, or CLICK HERE. Tickets are also available at the LU ticket office, located in the Montagne Center, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays. Tickets will be available at the ticket window at the LU Softball Complex starting one hour prior to first pitch.