Ryan Stacy slammed a one-out, solo home run to ignite a four-run first inning for the UTSA Roaodrunners, who rolled to an 11-1 road victory over Old Dominion Friday night in Norfolk, Va.
Fueling a 17-hit attack, freshman Dylan Rock went 4 for 5 at the plate. He scored three runs and drove in two.
Junior righthander Nathan Alexander picked up the victory by starting and pitching five scoreless innings.
He gave up three hits.
In UTSA’s last Conference USA road trip of the season, the Roadrunners and Monarchs are set to play Saturday and Sunday.
With two weeks left before conference tournament play commences, local and area NCAA Division I baseball teams will need to start winning to create momentum for championship runs. Here’s the breakdown:
PREVIEW: UTSA heads to Virginia to play a three-game series against Old Dominion this weekend.#BirdsUp?https://t.co/xzGg6DvkHF
Summary: In Conference USA, if you take your eye off the ball, you can get smacked in the nose. UTSA can’t afford to let that happen this week. The fifth-place Roadrunners (26-20, 12-11) are in good position to make the eight-team C-USA tournament. But if they have any postseason championship aspirations, they need win a road series this weekend against the last-place Old Dominion Monarchs (14-31, 6-17) and then follow suit next week against Charlotte (27-20, 13-11) at home.
Summary: Incarnate Word (29-20, 13-11) is bouncing back in baseball at just the right time. Eligible to play in the Southland Conference tournament after a four-year wait in transition from NCAA Division II, the Cardinals are tied for fifth with a top-eight finish necessary to extend the season. UIW plays at Texas A&M Corpus Christi (24-26, 8-16) this weekend before hosting powerful Sam Houston State (33-16, 19-5) next week. Sam Houston is the SLC’s No. 1 program.
Summary: It’s been a struggle lately for the Texas State Bobcats, who have lost five of their last six. But they remain in position to reach the Sun Belt Conference tournament. Texas State (23-24-1, 11-13) hosts Louisiana (28-21, 14-10) this weekend. The Bobcats will finish on the road against UT-Arlington (21-27, 11-13).
Outfielder Cade Bormet, a University of Missouri freshman from Reagan, likely is out for the season after suffering a facial fracture last week in a home game against Georgia.
Missouri’s Cade Bormet
Bormet was hospitalized last Thursday after crashing into a wall while chasing a ball tailing foul down the right field line.
A Missouri spokesman said Bormet’s condition is improving.
“Cade is doing much better,” the spokesman said in an email. “He did break the left orbital bone in his face, suffered a concussion and a large laceration on his left knee.
“He’s likely out for the remainder of the year as he recovers.”
As a high school player, Bormet helped lead Reagan to the state runner-up finishes in both 2014 and 2017.
He hit .360 with five home runs as a senior.
At Missouri, Bormet has played in 34 games with 15 starts. He is batting .261 with seven doubles, six RBI and 13 runs scored.
Texas infielder Kody Clemens hit for a .500 average over three games in Lubbock last weekend. He also belted three home runs and produced five RBI.
In addition, the Longhorns thoroughly enjoyed a productive weekend as a team, winning two of three from the nationally-ranked Texas Tech Red Raiders.
It’s easy to see that the former had something to do with the latter.
But in Clemens’ case, you get the feeling that Texas probably won’t ascend to the heights that it wants to reach this season without a strong finish from him.
For example, let’s examine Clemens’ last cold spell with the bat.
In a six-game stretch over the last week of April, Clemens went 2 for 23 at the plate, a streak that included the last two games of a home series against New Orleans, one at home against Houston and three on the road at West Virginia.
For whatever reason, Clemens wasn’t producing. The result? Texas went 3-3, which included two Big 12 losses in three tries against West Virginia in Morgantown.
Since then, the Longhorns have played much better, winning a mid-week game last week against Texas State and then taking two of three at Texas Tech, a performance in conference that keeps them in contention to host an NCAA regional.
During that stretch, Clemens has been on fire, pounding out nine hits and scoring six runs. Against the Red Raiders, he went 7 for 14. He slugged two home runs in Game 1 and another in Game 3, both UT victories.
Now, Texas finds itself moving up in the rankings and battling for a shot to play at home on the first week of the national tournament. Clemens is hardly the only reason the Longhorns won in Lubbock.
The Longhorns boast a talented roster with Zach Zubia, Duke Ellis and David Hamilton enjoying strong seasons offensively. A 4.62 team earned run average by the pitching staff is not the greatest, but a .976 fielding percentage (40th in the nation) is solid.
Then again, it seems Texas has been at its best lately when Clemens, the son of former UT star Roger Clemens, is riding a hot streak at the plate. Right now, Clemens is among the hottest hitters in the Big 12, which can only be a good thing for the Longhorns.
Top 25 rankings
(Baseball AmericaO
1.Florida 38-11 SEC
2. Stanford 37-6 Pac-12
3. North Carolina 32-13 ACC
4. Oregon State 35-7-1 Pac-12
5. Mississippi 36-13 SEC
6. Arkansas 33-15 SEC
7. North Carolina State 34-12 ACC
8. Clemson 35-12 ACC
9. Duke 35-11 ACC
10. Texas Tech 35-14 Big 12
11. UCLA 30-13 Pac-12
12. Georgia 33-14 SEC
13. Southern Miss 35-12 Conference USA
14. East Carolina 33-12 American
15. Minnesota 32-12 Big Ten
16. Florida State 32-15 ACC
17. Texas 33-18 Big 12
18. Auburn 34-14 SEC
19. Coastal Carolina 32-16 Sun Belt
20. Oklahoma State 28-17 Big 12
21. Kentucky 30-17 SEC
22. Stetson 37-11 Atlantic Sun
23. South Florida 29-15 American
24. Tennessee Tech 40-6 Ohio Valley
25. Connecticut 27-14 American
On Wayne Graham’s last trip to San Antonio as coach of the Rice Owls, his team won two out of three from UTSA and kept hope alive for a shot at the postseason.
But after the Owls shut down the home team twice on Saturday, the Roadrunners returned the favor on Sunday, courtesy of a masterful performance from pitcher Chance Kirby.
Kirby pitched into the eighth inning and struck out a career-high 13 in UTSA’s 7-0 victory.
“UT-San Antonio has a fine baseball team,” Graham said. “Winning two out of three from them here is a big deal. The kid’s pitching performance today was really that good. There’s no joke. He really pitched well.”
Baseball coaching legend Wayne Graham of the Rice Owls talks to home plate umpire Joe Brown after the fourth inning.
Any series against the Graham-coached Owls is always a highlight on the Roadrunners’ home schedule.
But this one took on added significance on April 25, when the 82-year-old, College Baseball Hall of Famer announced that this season would be his last at Rice.
Based on what he had been told by a Rice administrator, Graham said his contract would not be extended and that his 27-year tenure as coach of the Owls would be coming to an end.
Discussing the impending end of an era, UTSA coach Jason Marshall said Graham’s legacy is secure in baseball circles.
“You talk about the respect of his peers, when he sits in a room talking baseball, you just sit there and shut your mouth and listen,” Marshall said. “He is just a great baseball coach and great baseball mind (who) has always gotten the most out of his players.”
Chance Kirby struck out a career-high 13 Sunday as UTSA shut out the Rice Owls, 7-0.
Since Graham took charge in 1992, Rice has fared well on state, regional and national levels, compiling a record of 1,167-523.
Starting in 1995, the Owls embarked on a string of 23 straight NCAA tournaments, the third-longest streak in the nation behind Florida State (40) and Cal State-Fullerton (26).
In that time, they’ve played in seven College World Series, winning the 2003 national title along the way.
In the past two seasons, however, Rice’s dominance has started to fade.
Last year, the Owls struggled to a 13-25 start, before a late surge propelled them into the C-USA tournament and, ultimately, to the title at Biloxi, Miss.
This year, Rice (20-26-2) still has work to do even to qualify for the C-USA’s postseason event in Biloxi.
The Owls trail the UAB Blazers and the Western Kentucky Hilltoppers, both tied for eighth in the conference standings.
If the tournament started today, UAB and Western Kentucky (both 11-13) would have the edge over ninth-place Rice (9-13-2).
Fortunately for Graham, two weeks remain on the schedule, and he gets to play UAB at home next weekend before finishing at FIU.
UTSA’s Jonathan Tapia scores from third, sliding into home to beat a throw from the outfield on Ben Brookover’s second-inning sacrifice fly.
Graham, from Yoakum, turned into a solid 1950s-era amateur ball player at Houston Reagan and at the University of Texas.
He later played third base and outfield in the pros, including 10 games for the Gene Mauch-managed Philadelphia Phillies in 1963 and 20 more in ’64 for the New York Mets, under Casey Stengel.
Graham said he learned a lot in a short time under Stengel.
“I didn’t dare sit next to him on the bench–and that’s what I occupied with the Mets was the bench,” he said during his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012. “But I was close enough to hear everything …
“He ran a commentary on the game as you went, especially on how the pitcher was pitching to our hitters, and I have grown to think that is pretty important.”
Graham didn’t get all the answers from Stengel.
He said he is struggling with the idea that he no longer will be coaching.
At the same time, Graham said he won’t allow his emotions to affect his work at the Owls prepare for the last two weeks.
“It’s rough off the field,” he said. “It’s not rough on the field. I’ve always come to the ball park with complete absorption in the game. I don’t have any choice. I couldn’t do it any other way.”
Having coached since the early 1970s, when he started at Houston Scarborough High School, Graham is philosophical about moving on.
“All things come to and end, unfortunately,” he said. “(But) I don’t know many people that coach that long. I’ve had 47 years in the game. Loved it.
“You know, I’m sort of like (former Texas football coach Darrell) Royal. He said the losses hurt a lot. Well, they do hurt. But I’m still able to recover. This has been a really rough year.”
Brookover sparked a two-run first inning for the Roadrunners with an opposite-field single to right.
SEE. YOU. LATER. Trent Bowles uncorks his sixth home run of the year, a three-run shot to give UTSA a 4-0 lead in the third inning.#BirdsUp? pic.twitter.com/lYqWHdMeK7
Todd Bowles slugged two of his team’s four home runs Tuesday night, leading UTSA past the visiting Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders, 14-1, in seven innings.
Dylan Rock and Ryan Stacy also connected for the Roadrunners, who have won eight of their last 10 leading into a Conference USA weekend series against the Rice Owls.
