Neither team looks particularly into the game, either, and the crowd has been sitting quietly for most of it, except for one UTA mom who's loudly yelling encouragement. NC State's 3rd-base coach just screamed angrily across the diamond to his runner on first, so I'm not the only guy in the park nodding off.

Depending on your perspective, this should either be a 1-1 game or about a 6-1 game. NC State wasted outs on the bases in each of the first two innings. Leadoff hitter Matt Camp walked to lead off the game and was immediately thrown out attempting to steal. In the 2nd, Brian Aragon lined a ball to the wall but couldn’t decide whether to be content with a double or to try to stretch it into a triple, and in the end he did neither, getting tagged out between the bases. Because of that gaffe, two singles, a double, and two walks in the inning had only produced one run. One run was really all they should have scored, too, as pitcher Chris Taylor induced a two-out grounder right at second baseman Daniel Rieder. Though a high turf hop surprised Rieder, he managed to snow-cone the ball, but threw wildly into the dugout, allowing two runs to score.

Robby Winn supplied UTA’s run with a 2nd-inning leadoff homer.

Taylor has already been pulled from the game, replaced by Southland Conference Tournament MVP Ryan Riddle. Riddle broke the tournament record of most scoreless innings pitched (10.2) in two relief appearances, one of which lasted 6.2 innings to eliminate host Lamar.