AUSTIN, Texas – Texas-Tyler outlasted the ninth-ranked Concordia University Texas baseball team in 16 innings, 8-6, on Friday night at Tornado Field. The Patriots won the season opener that lasted five hours and 31 minutes after featuring a two hour and 20-minute delay before the start of the contest. The ballgame ended just before 3 a.m. Saturday.
Texas-Tyler (25-9, 20-5 ASC) scored two runs in the top of the 16th inning and held the Tornados (24-7, 18-3 ASC) scoreless in the bottom of the frame to capture the victory.
The two pitching staffs combined for 46 strikeouts and 622 pitches.
Concordia Texas also set an American Southwest Conference single-game record by drawing 19 walks.
Michael Blevins (1-1) earned the win after tossing six scoreless panels out of the bullpen. The right-hander allowed only two hits and struck out seven.
Matthew Brown (0-1) took the loss after giving up two runs on two hits in 1/3 inning.
Justin Traxler kept the Tornados in the game with 7 1/3 stanzas out of the bullpen. The righty allowed only four hits and a pair of unearned runs while striking out 14 batters.
Connor Bertsch finished a triple away from the cycle, as he was 4-for-5 with a three-run homer and four RBIs. He also walked three times.
The Tornados jumped out to a 5-2 with Bertsch's fifth round-tripper of the season in the fourth.
The Patriots picked up an unearned run in the fifth and then took advantage of another CTX error in the following frame to plate two more tallies and pull even at 5-5.
After three scoreless innings, Texas-Tyler took a 6-5 lead in the top of the ninth after the Tornados defense committed its fourth error of the ballgame.
However, in the bottom of the frame,
Carson Schindler scored on
Adam Ortega's groundout to push the contest to extra innings.
The two teams went scoreless until the Patriots broke through in the 16th.
The series will conclude with a doubleheader Saturday. First pitch has been pushed back to 2 p.m.
