Matt King, Mason Lytle and Co. lead UTSA past Texas State, 11-9

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Mason Lytle (No. 3) celebrates with teammates after his fourth-inning grand slam boosted UTSA into an 8-5 lead against Texas State. The Roadrunners went on to claim victory over their Interstate 35 rivals from San Marcos and a split of their two games this season. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Matt King ignited the offense early with a solo home run and an RBI double, and then Mason Lytle hit a go-ahead grand slam in the fourth inning, helping the UTSA Roadrunners rally past the Texas State Bobcats, 11-9, in an Interstate 35 rivalry game Tuesday night at Roadrunner Field.

The win, coming on a warm and breezy evening in front of an announced 1,070 fans, was significant on a number of fronts for the Roadrunners.

It gave them renewed momentum leading into a weekend home series in the American Athletic Conference against Wichita State. It boosted UTSA coach Pat Hallmark to his 200th career victory, and it also allowed allowed the team to gain a split of two games against Texas State this season.

Braylon Owens pitched 2 2/3 innings and earned the win in relief. UTSA beat Texas State 11-9 in non-conference baseball on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Braylon Owens pitched 2 2/3 innings and earned the win in relief. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Records

Texas State 22-24
UTSA 26-18

Coming up

AAC series: Wichita State at UTSA
Friday – 6 p.m.
Saturday — 2 p.m.
Sunday — 1 p.m.

Notable

A dime novelist probably couldn’t have scripted a more harrowing start for a Roadrunners team that came out flat, steadied itself in the middle innings and finally hung on to win behind the pitching of Braylon Owens, Ruger Riojas and Fischer Kingsbery.

In the beginning, a couple of UTSA pitchers didn’t have great control of their stuff. One walked three batters and threw three wild pitches. On top of that, the infield botched a couple of plays and contributed to the Bobcats scoring four runs in the first inning and one more in the second for a 5-0 lead.

Matt King had three hits including a home run. UTSA beat Texas State 11-9 in non-conference baseball on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Matt King had three hits including a home run as UTSA beat Texas State 11-9 in non-conference baseball on Tuesday. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Fortunately for the Roadrunners, they have a prideful roster of players who compete hard even when they’re not performing at their best, and that’s exactly what happened. Even then, the poor start to the game left Hallmark shaking his head afterward. Asked how he liked his team’s performance, the coach said, “I didn’t love it.”

“I like winning,” Hallmark said. “I mean, winning is nice. But we didn’t play a terrific game. We were fortunate to win.”

Owens came to the rescue for the Roadrunners in the second inning. The Bobcats had a couple of runners on base and were threatening to blow the game open when Aaron Lugo produced an RBI single to right field to make it 5-0.

That’s when Owens started to get tough.

With two runners aboard, he got Texas State RBI machine Daylan Pena on a ground ball to end the inning. Owens (4-1) went on to complete 2 and 2/3 innings to earn the victory. Though he yielded four hits, he steadied his team by throwing strikes and blanking the Bobcats in the third and fourth innings.

By then, the bats had come alive. King highlighted a three-run second inning with a leadoff homer. In the third, he drove in another run with a double into the gap in left field. By the fourth, the Bobcats were reeling. A couple of batters hit by pitch loaded the bases for Lytle, who hit a ball over the left field wall for a grand slam and an 8-5 lead.

A few innings later, Isaiah Walker stoked the excitement in the home crowd when he laced a drive down the right field line that went for a three-run double. UTSA, at that point, was rolling. The Roadrunners were up 11-6.

Isaiah Walker hit a three-run double in the sixth inning. UTSA beat Texas State 11-9 in non-conference baseball on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Isaiah Walker connects on a three-run double in the sixth inning. – Photo by Joe Alexander

The Bobcats made it interesting late when Chase Mora drove in a run in the seventh, and then August Ramirez sparkled in the eighth with a a 2-run homer to center field. Ramirez, a fifth-year senior from nearby O’Connor High School, made it 11-9 with his eye-opening, line-drive over the batters’ eye.

But just as things started to get a little hairy for the Roadrunners, Kingsbery entered the game and retired the one batter he faced in the eighth and all three in the ninth for the save. Kingsbery showed raw emotion after getting Ramirez on a swinging third strike, tossing his glove to the ground and screaming with delight.

“Battle of I-35,” Owens said, when asked about the fire among UTSA players immediately after the game. “I mean, they were chirping us. Like, their fans, they chirped us pretty good when we played at their place. We were just excited to beat ’em here.”

For UTSA, the victory was cleansing, in a way. It rinsed off some of the disappointment from losing two of three last weekend in an AAC road series at Rice. Entering the series, UTSA was tied for the lead in the conference and Rice was tied for eighth place. Owens suggested that maybe the Roadrunners took them too lightly.

Pat Hallmark. UTSA beat Texas State 11-9 in non-conference baseball on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark reached a career milestone with his 200th victory. – Photo by Joe Alexander

“We just came out dead,” Owens said. “I think we thought we already had it in the bag before we even started playing. Didn’t keep the chip on our shoulder.”

If anything positive came from the trip to Houston, Owens said it may have been a learning experience, in that it just goes to show that “no team is an easy win.” Trailing East Carolina by two games in the AAC race with three weekends remaining, UTSA will play conference series against Wichita State and South Florida at home and then against Florida Atlantic on the road. The AAC tournament is scheduled for May 21-26 at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.

“We know we we’ve got to fight against every team,” Owens said.

JB’s Video Replay

Matt King, a UTSA junior from Kingwood Park High School, barrels a ball over the wall in left field to ignite a three-run second inning for the Roadrunners.

UTSA freshman Whitt Joyce, who played at Medina Valley High School, rips a double to left in the second inning.

UTSA’s Mason Lytle, an Oregon transfer from Pearland High, belts a grand slam in the fourth inning for the Roadrunners. He has hit 10 homers this season.

Isaiah Walker, a junior from Manvel High School, laces a double down the right field line to score three runs for UTSA in the sixth.

Texas State graduate senior August Ramirez from O’Connor High School slammed a two-run blast over the center field wall in the seventh. – Video courtesy of Texas State athletics

UTSA righthander Fischer Kingsbery strikes out August Ramirez to end the game and then flings his glove to the ground as an exclamation mark an 11-9 victory over Texas State.

Baseball: Roadrunners to host the Bobcats tonight in I-35 rivalry

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The drama of the Interstate 35 baseball rivalry between the UTSA Roadrunners and the Texas State Bobcats will unfold once again tonight in San Antonio. First pitch in the 103rd meeting between the teams is at 6 p.m. at Roadrunner Field.

Texas State leads 63-39 in the series, which started in 1992. Each year it showcases athletes who grew up in the area, who are now representing universities separated by about 50 miles of freeway through South Texas.

For years, the teams played against one another in the Southland Conference, and then they shared membership for one season in the Western Athletic Conference.

Since 2014, they’ve played in separate leagues, with Texas State operating in the Sun Belt and UTSA in Conference USA and now, starting with this season, in the American Athletic Conference.

UTSA and Texas State have battled the past five years under successful coaches, with Pat Hallmark leading the Roadrunners and Steven Trout guiding the Bobcats. Trout’s Texas State teams own a 4-2 edge against UTSA in that time.

Earlier this season, on March 19, pitching changes were plentiful and home-run balls were flying all over the place as the Bobcats claimed a 14-13 victory over the Roadrunners in San Marcos.

Seven homers were launched, including four by UTSA, on a night when Texas State used eight pitchers and UTSA seven.

The two teams opened the game by going back and forth on each other with scoring binges. UTSA plated four runs in the top of the first inning. Texas State retaliated with nine in the bottom half. By the end of the third inning, the Bobcats led, 14-8.

UTSA stayed in it, with a shot to win, until the very end. Trailing by three runs going into their last at bat, the Roadrunners received a lift when freshman Diego Diaz hit a two-run homer.

Still trailing by one, the Roadrunners had base runners at first and second when Texas State’s Aaron Lugo fielded a ground ball in the infield and stepped on third for a force play to end it.

Records

Texas State 22-23
UTSA 25-18

Coming up

Non-conference
Tonight: Texas State at UTSA, 6 p.m.

AAC series: Wichita State at UTSA
Friday – 6 p.m.
Saturday — 2 p.m.
Sunday — 1 p.m.

Notable

Roadrunners coach Pat Hallmark has a chance to reach a career milestone tonight. A victory would give him 200 in his career. Hallmark is 199-138 in seven seasons, which includes two at the University of the Incarnate Word and five at UTSA.

UTSA has played well overall since the March 19 loss to Texas State, posting a 15-7 record since then. The Roadrunners faltered a bit last weekend, losing two at Rice before claiming a 4-2 victory on Sunday behind the pitching of starter Ulises Quiroga. It was the first series loss for the Roadrunners in conference this season. UTSA is 12-6 in the AAC and sits in second place.

After beating UTSA, Texas State has struggled, going 10-14 in a 24-game stretch. Last weekend in Jonesboro, Ark., the Bobcats dropped back-to-back, one-run decisions to Arkansas State before rebounding to claim a 10-0, run-rule victory on Sunday. Drayton Brown pitched a complete game for the win, which could help tonight if the Bobcats need to go deep into their bullpen. Texas State is 8-13 in conference, 11th out of 14 teams.

Ryne Farber, a Texas State freshman from San Antonio’s Johnson High School, has hit safely in all seven games since returning from injury back on April 19. The San Antonio native is 13 for 25 at the plate for a .520 average during that stretch. Farber didn’t play in the first UTSA-Texas State game.

Offensive leaders

Texas State
Batting average: Farber .398, Kameron Weil .327, Aaron Lugo .298.
Home runs: Lugo 9, Daylan Pena 7, August Ramirez 7.
RBI: Pena 39, Chase Mora 38, Lugo 33.

UTSA
Batting average: Mason Lytle .385, Isaiah Walker .357, Caleb Hill .351.
Home runs: Lytle 9, Hill 9, James Taussig 6.
RBI: Lytle 37, Hill 35, Matt King 34.

Roadrunners bounce back, beat the Rice Owls 4-2 in series finale

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By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Repay

James Taussig’s two-run homer in the eighth inning Sunday capped a four-run rally and boosted the UTSA Roadrunners to a 4-2 victory over the Rice Owls in the American Athletic Conference.

Roadrunners starting pitcher Ulises Quiroga (6-0) stayed undefeated for the season, throwing 97 pitches in seven innings and allowing only two runs on four hits. He struck out eight. Fischer Kingsbery sealed the victory and earned the save, his first, by striking out three over the last two innings.

The win allowed the Roadrunners to avoid losing three straight to the Owls in Houston leading into Tuesday night’s non-conference home game against the Texas State Bobcats.

Rice beat UTSA 9-8 in 10 innings on Friday night and 9-3 on Saturday. In addition, the Owls had the Roadrunners down 2-0 going into the eighth inning in the AAC series finale.

Facing Rice reliever Tom Vincent in the eighth, UTSA’s Andrew Stuckey led off with a single to left field. Mason Lytle followed with a double to left. On the play, Stuckey tried to come all the way around to score but was out at the plate on a relay throw from the second baseman.

Not to be denied, UTSA kept on swinging with Caleb Hill lining an RBI single to center that plated Lytle. From there, Alex Olivo grounded out to the right side, advancing Hill to second base and prompting the Owls to replace Vincent with Garrett Stratton.

Matt King worked the count to 3-1 and then bashed a double into the gap in left center, scoring Hill from second base and tying the game. Taussig then followed with a two-run home run to right field to make it 4-2.

Tucker Alch pitched well as the starter for the Owls, working his way through 6 and 1/3 innings scoreless. He struck out five. Stratton (1-3) was tagged with the loss.

Records

UTSA 25-18, 12-6
Rice 17-26, 8-10

Coming up

Non-conference: Texas State at UTSA, Tuesday, 6 p.m.
AAC: Wichita State at UTSA, Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Notable

The East Carolina Pirates lead the AAC regular-season title race by two games over the second-place Roadrunners. The Pirates (35-8, 14-4) beat the Memphis Tigers 8-3 on Sunday to complete a three-game road sweep. East Carolina has won eight in a row and 13 out of 14 overall.

Texas State

Rice wins to end UTSA’s string of five straight AAC series victories

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA’s five-for-five streak of weekend series victories in the American Athletic Conference came to an end Saturday afternoon in Houston.

The Rice Owls erupted for five runs in the first inning and three in the second for a commanding eight-run lead en route to a series-clinching 9-3 victory over Roadrunners.

After winning 9-8 in 10 innings on Friday night, the Owls came alive early as Nathan Becker hit a two-run double and Trey Duffield added a three-run homer in the bottom of the first, allowing the Owls to cruise to their second straight win over the Roadrunners and their fifth in a row overall.

The series finale is scheduled for Sunday at 2 p.m.

Rice cranked out 16 hits to back the pitching of lefthander J.D. McCracken, who pitched 8 and 1/3 innings for the victory. McCracken was a steady performer, yielding only six hits and three walks while striking out three. The Rice infield defense turned three double plays behind him.

One of those double plays served to kill what potentially could have been a big inning for the Roadrunners in the top of the fourth.

With one out and a runner on base, Ty Tilson hit a ball down the right field line. The first base umpire turned around and watched it hit the ground near the line. He called it fair, which would have resulted in one run on the board for the Roadrunners.

But after a review, the umpires reversed themselves and called it foul. Tilson eventually bounced into an inning-ending double play.

Mason Lytle hit a two-run homer for the Roadrunners in the top of the sixth. Alex Olivo set it up with a leadoff double, and Lytle followed with his ninth homer of the year to make it 9-2.

UTSA scored again in the ninth, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep alive what had been a remarkable string of successful weekends in its new conference.

As former rivals in the Conference USA, UTSA and Rice are playing their inaugural season as members of the AAC. UTSA started the conference schedule in style, winning two of three against defending champion East Carolina.

The Roadrunners followed with series victories over Tulane, Charlotte, Memphis and UAB. The weekend triumphs against Tulane and Memphis both came on the road. Against both Charlotte and UAB, UTSA lost the opening game and rebounded to win the next two.

With attention turning to Sunday’s series finale, Rice is the team on a roll. The Owls not only have won five straight, they have also won eight of their last nine. Given that the Owls had lost nine straight and 13 of 14 before the winning started, it’s a notable achievement.

The Owls also feel good about reversing a trend against the Roadrunners in the series between the two in-state rivals. The Roadrunners won five of six against the Owls last season. In three previous seasons, Pat Hallmark-coached UTSA won 12 and lost five against Rice.

Records

UTSA 24-18, 11-6
Rice 17-25, 8-9

Coming up

Game 3 of a three-game series in the AAC. UTSA at Rice, Sunday at 1 p.m. UTSA will play a non-conference, mid-week game at home Tuesday at 6 p.m. against I-35 rival Texas State. The Roadrunners return to AAC play at home next weekend (May 3-5) against the Wichita State Shockers.

Notable

American Conference-leading East Carolina (34-8, 13-4) has won two straight on the road at Memphis this weekend, claiming a 14-3 victory on Saturday afternoon after winning 14-0 in seven innings (on the run rule) on Friday night.

Rice catches a 10th-inning break and beats UTSA, 9-8

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

After letting a three-run lead slip away in the ninth inning Friday night, Rice Owls pushed across the winning run with one out in the bottom of the 10th, beating the UTSA Roadrunners, 9-8, in the American Athletic Conference.

A crazy sequence of two plays gave the victory to the Owls and knocked the Roadrunners out of first place in the AAC.

First, Tobias Motley lofted a pop fly to shallow right field. With the UTSA right fielder charging in, the ball dropped behind him, allowing Motley to motor all the way to third base.

Jacob Devenny followed with a squeeze bunt, ruled as an RBI single, for the winner. UTSA pitcher Ruger Riojas couldn’t catch it cleanly, everyone was safe, and Rice came away with the victory in the first game of a three-game series at Reckling Park.

It was a heartbreaker for the Roadrunners, and it was also costly. Earlier in the evening, the East Carolina Pirates won on the road, beating the Memphis Tigers 14-0 on the run rule in seven innings.

The Pirates now lead the AAC race with a record of 12-4, followed by the Roadrunners, who fell one game back at 11-5.

Motley and Ben Dukes slammed two-out, two-run homers off UTSA freshman Rob Orloski in the second inning, staking the Owls to a 4-1 lead.

The Roadrunners battled back with three runs on only one hit off Parker Smith in the top of the fourth to tie it. Undeterred, the Owls answered with two more scores in the bottom half to make it 6-4.

Manny Garza hiked the Owls’ advantage to 7-4 when he belted a solo home run in the fifth.

In the eighth inning, the Roadrunners started a rally, getting a couple of runners on for Caleb Hill, who rapped an RBI single through the right side.

At that point, Rice reliever Davion Hixon got tough. With runners at second and third, UTSA needed only a base hit to tie it, but Hixon struck out Alexander Olivo on a high fastball and got Matt King on a fly ball to center to end the threat.

In the bottom of the eighth, the Owls tacked on a run for insurance. Treyton Rank’s RBI single off Ruger Riojas padded the lead to 8-5.

UTSA rallied in the ninth to load the bases against Hixon with a leadoff double by Ty Tilson, a single by Isaiah Walker and then a walk to Diego Diaz. At that point, Mark Henning hit a one-hopper to Hixon, who threw home for the force and the first out.

Subsequently, Broc Parmer came to the plate as a pinch hitter and delivered with a two-run double to right, pulling UTSA to within one. With runners at first and third, Mason Lytle smashed a double off the wall in right, bringing in the tying run to make it 8-8.

Records

UTSA 24-17, 11-5
Rice 16-25, 7-9

Coming up

Game Two of a three-game series in the AAC. UTSA at Rice, Saturday at 2 p.m. Game 3 is Sunday at 1 p.m.

UTSA opens a three-game AAC baseball series at Rice

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Alex Olivo. UTSA lost to UT-Arlington 10-9 in the Roadrunners' baseball season opener on Friday, Feb. 16, 2024, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Infielder/designated hitter Alexander Olivo batted .462 with four RBI in four games for the Roadrunners last week. – File photo by Joe Alexander.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

For the UTSA Roadrunners, winning baseball games against the Rice Owls once seemed like a nearly insurmountable challenge. Winning on the road at Rice? Well, that once seemed to border on the impossible.

Lately, the tables have turned, according to a game-by-game account of the series in the UTSA baseball record book. Rice holds a 28-22 edge, but UTSA has won 15 of the last 21 since 2018, including the last four.

More surprisingly, UTSA is 9-4 against Rice in the last 13 meetings at Houston. Quite a change from the early days of the series when the Owls once went 13-0 at home against the Roadrunners over the first 11 years of the series.

Naturally, except for historical context, none of that matters when the Roadrunners open a three-game road series against the Owls at Reckling starting tonight.

With both competing in their first season among the 10 baseball-playing members of the American Athletic Conference, UTSA comes into the weekend tied for first place with the East Carolina Pirates. Rice enters tied for eighth, though the Owls have started to show more consistency of late.

Coached by Jose Cruz Jr., the namesake son of a 1980s-era Houston Astros standout, the Owls have won six of their last seven overall. They are 5-1 in their last six AAC games after sweeping three at South Florida last weekend.

Led by slugging Treyton Rank, the Owls scored in double figures in each of their three games against the Bulls. Rank, a junior from Monticello, Fla., hit .581 with three doubles, a homer and eight RBI in the series.

Records

UTSA 24-16, 11-4
Rice 15-25, 6-9

Coming up

A three-game American Athletic Conference series. UTSA at Rice, Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m. Freshman Robert Orloski is scheduled to start the opener for the Roadrunners against the Owls’ Parker Smith.

Notable

UTSA head coach Pat Hallmark is 12-5 against Rice, where he once played for a season and later served as a longtime assistant coach under Wayne Graham. Hallmark’s Roadrunners went 5-1 against Rice last season. Hallmark played at Rice in 1995 and worked as an assistant coach there from 2006-16.

After an up-and-down start to this season, Hallmark’s Roadrunners are 14-5 over their last 19 games. Last week, UTSA went 3-1 at home, winning two of three on the weekend against the UAB Blazers.

The Roadrunners have remained in the AAC title race with East Carolina despite the loss of injured Tye Odom. UTSA is 7-3 without Odom, a multi-skilled outfielder, since he went down with a high ankle sprain at home against Charlotte on April 5. His availability for the Rice series is uncertain.

UTSA worked utility man Isaiah Walker back into the lineup last weekend against UAB. Walker, one of the team’s best defensive players at multiple positions, has played in only six games this season.

The Roadrunners have won all five series they have played in the AAC, including road series wins at Tulane (3-0) and Memphis (2-1). UTSA players in the hunt for postseason honors include pitchers Ruger Riojas and Ulises Quiroga, outfielders Mason Lytle and Caleb Hill and infielder Matt King.

Riojas leads the AAC in saves (six), is second in wins (seven) and third in ERA (2.49). In his last outing, the sophomore from Wimberley took the loss, the first of his career. Last Friday night, he yielded four runs in 3 and 2/3 innings as UAB beat UTSA, 7-3.

Quiroga (5-0 3.92) has emerged as the team’s stopper on Sundays. The senior from Baytown is 4-0 in his last four starts. In three of those starts, he has yielded two or fewer earned runs in six or more innings.

Lytle (with a batting average of .388) ranks second in the AAC in hitting. He and Alexander Olivo (.368), Hill (.354) and King (.333) rank among the AAC’s top nine in average. Olivo batted .462 in four games last week.

Three from New Braunfels on the rise in the American League

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Notable: Former New Braunfels High School and Texas A&M pitcher Bryce Miller is scheduled to start tonight in Arlington for the Seattle Mariners against the World Series champion Texas Rangers.

Miller is off to a fast start in his second season in the major leagues.

The 6-foot-2 righthander has been nearly untouchable in April. This month, he’s 3-0 in three starts, winning on the road at Milwaukee and at home against the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. In his three April outings, Miller has yielded only one earned run in 19 and 1/3 innings.

Elsewhere:

Two former University of Texas players, Kody Clemens and Bryce Elder, took full advantage of promotions to the major leagues recently.

Clemens belted a three-run homer for the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday night in his first MLB game of the season. He was called up from Triple A in the wake of Phillies’ star Bryce Harper’s absence on paternity leave. Clemens, 27, started fast this spring, hitting .270 with three home runs and 11 RBI at Lehigh Valley.

Elder started and pitched the Atlanta Braves to a 3-0 victory against Miami. He yielded eight hits in 6 and 2/3 scoreless innings his first MLB start this season. The right-hander struck out four and walked none. Elder pitched in 41 games for the Braves over the past two seasons but didn’t make the squad out of spring training. Last season, he was 12-4.

Getting another chance, he made a statement about his professionalism.

“It says a lot about him,” Braves manager Brian Snitker said in an Associated Press story. “The dedication, the focus — everything. When we sent him down, he said, ‘I’ll be ready when you need me.’ And he was. He had really good command of all of his pitches. We’ve seen him do that before.”

Roadrunners shrug off the wind and down the UAB Blazers, 12-3

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James Taussig ties the game in the bottom of the third with an RBI single through the right side. – Video by The JB Replay

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

A howling wind out of the north threatened to turn Sunday’s series finale at Roadrunner Field into a low-scoring pitchers’ duel, but with James Taussig, Caleb Hill and Diego Diaz leading the way, UTSA made the necessary adjustments at the plate and rolled to a 12-3 victory over the UAB Blazers.

With the win, UTSA stayed tied with ninth-ranked East Carolina for first place in the American Athletic Conference race.

Taussig, a 6-foot-6 junior from Houston, went three for three and drove in two runs as the Roadrunners notched their fifth series victory of the season in the AAC. Later, he called it “just another day” as teams showed up at the ballpark with wind gusting into the hitters’ faces in the 30-mph range.

“(Coaches) get us ready every day to hit the right way in these conditions, you know, staying through the ball, staying on top of the ball,” Taussig said. “(We’re) just trying to get maximum bat speed and hit the ball as hard as (we) can. (You) can’t control what the wind does to the ball.”

With temperatures in the 60s for a noon start on the UTSA campus, fans filed into the stadium decked out in sweatshirts and windbreakers, and holding on to their caps, if they were lucky. Flags over the center field fence were flapping furiously.

The game started with an equally chaotic set of circumstances. In the top of the first, UAB coach Casey Dunn was ejected for arguing with the home-plate umpire. In the bottom half, the Roadrunners pushed a runner to third base and scored on a wild pitch.

By the fourth inning, the Blazers had rallied. They plated two runs in the third and one in the fourth to take a 3-2 lead. But before long, the Roadrunners started to click. They scored three runs in the fifth and five in the seventh to break the game open.

“We played well,” UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said. “It was a tough day to hit with that wind blowing (in) so hard from center. So I was really impressed with our hitting.”

UTSA entered the season intent on making some noise in its first season in the AAC, and Hallmark’s team has done just that, playing five series in conference and winning all of them, beating East Carolina (2-1), Tulane (3-0), Charlotte (2-1), Memphis (2-1) and now UAB (also 2-1).

Asked how impressive it is to have won every series, Hallmark answered modestly and carefully, perhaps knowing that a tough series awaits next weekend at Rice.

“We’re trying to play good ball,” Hallmark said. “We’re trying to control the things we can control, which is, throw strikes, play good defense and fight at the plate. We always boil it back down to those three things. If we do those three things, we’ll deserve to win. We won’t always win. But we’ll deserve to win, and that’s really all we can do.”

Taussig did his part, reaching base five times, with three hits and a couple of walks. Also, two RBI. Hill reached four times on two hits and two walks. He also made the most of each opportunity, scoring four runs. Diaz enjoyed a two for five day with two RBI.

Ulises Quiroga (5-0) pitched six innings to earn the win. He yielded five hits and three runs, though only two of them were earned. Braylon Owens closed by working the final three innings, all scoreless. Combined, the two of them struck out 10, with Quiroga getting six of them.

Blazers starter Colin Daniel (6-3) was saddled with the loss.

Records

UAB 17-21, 5-10
UTSA 24-16, 11-4

Series at a glance

Game 1: UAB defeats UTSA, 7-3
Game 2: UTSA defeats UAB, 7-5
Game 3: UTSA defeats UAB, 12-3

Coming up

Friday, April 26 — UTSA at Rice, 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, April 27 — UTSA at Rice, 2 p.m.
Sunday, April 28 — UTSA at Rice, 1 p.m.

AAC leaders

East Carolina 11-4, 31-8
UTSA 11-4, 24-16

AAC baseball: Surging East Carolina takes a half-game lead on UTSA

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The East Carolina Pirates swept a doubleheader on Saturday and moved into a half-game lead in the American Athletic Conference baseball race over the UTSA Roadrunners.

The ninth-ranked Pirates won 11-7 and 11-4 on their home field to sweep a three-game series from the Wichita State Shockers.

With UTSA preparing to host the UAB Blazers in a series finale in San Antonio on Sunday, here are the updated AAC standings:

American Athletic Conference
Baseball standings

East Carolina 11-4, 31-8
UTSA 10-4, 23-16
Charlotte 8-7, 19-21
Florida Atlantic 7-7, 20-16
South Florida 7-7, 21-18
Wichita State 7-8, 21-20
Tulane 6-8, 21-18
Memphis 6-9, 18-22
UAB 5-9, 17-20
Rice 5-9, 14-25

UTSA downs UAB, 7-5, with series finale set for Sunday

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA on Saturday bounced back from a loss in the series opener and downed the UAB Blazers 7-5 at Roadrunner Field. With the series knotted at one win apiece, UTSA and UAB will play the finale of the three-game set on Sunday at noon.

Caleb Hill, Alex Olivo and Mark Henning each had two hits apiece for the Roadrunners. Hill and Olivo scored twice and Henning had two RBI. Reliever Daniel Garza (3-1) pitched five innings to earn the victory.

With the win, the Roadrunners kept pace with the East Carolina Pirates in the chase for first place in the American Athletic Conference. Later in the day, the Pirates rallied from a seven-run deficit to beat the Wichita State Shockers, 11-7.

UTSA and East Carolina are tied for first place at 10-4.

Records

UAB 17-20, 5-9
UTSA 23-16, 10-4

Series at a glance

Game 1: UAB 7, UTSA 3
Game 2: UTSA 7, UAB 5

Coming up

UAB at UTSA, Sunday, noon.

Notable

UTSA’s Mason Lytle was hit on his batting helmet by a pitch in the bottom of the second inning and had to come out of the game briefly. After he was checked out by a trainer, he took the field in the top of the third and played the rest of the game. Lytle leads the Roadrunners with a .388 average.

Roadrunners utility man Isaiah Walker played in a game for the first time since April 5. Sidelined with injuries for much of the season, he came off the bench to pinch hit in the bottom of the third and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. In the top of the fourth, he entered the defensive alignment at third base. He finished one for two on the day.

The Roadrunners have won all four of their weekend series in the American, and now they’ll try to make it five for five with a victory on Sunday. UTSA has claimed series victories over East Carolina (2-1), Tulane (3-0), Charlotte (2-1) and Memphis (2-1).