By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners didn’t flinch after they dropped back-to-back games in walk-off fashion earlier this week.

Caden Miller had a big day on Saturday in Houston with three hits and five RBIs. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Seemingly, they just reverted to the basics of the game, the fundamentals that have under-girded their rise as one of the best mid-major programs in the nation.

The Roadrunners rolled past the Rice Owls 13-0 Saturday afternoon in Houston to claim a second straight win via shutout and their 14th straight series victory in American Conference play.

Officials called it after seven innings on the run rule.

After losing 13-11 at Incarnate Word on Tuesday afternoon and 3-2 in 10 innings to open the road series at Rice on Thursday night, UTSA rebounded with two wins in two days in dominating fashion.

First, they followed the lead of starting pitcher Conor Myles to an 8-0 victory on Friday.

Next, they surged in the series finale with another strong pitching performance, this one backed by a 14-hit attack.

Leading 2-0 after four innings, the Roadrunners erupted for five runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth to quiet an Easter weekend crowd at Reckling Park.

Home runs by UTSA’s Christian Hallmark and Drew Detlefsen highlighted a fifth-inning uprising that included some sloppy play by the home team.

An error, two walks and two wild pitches by the Owls allowed the Roadrunners to break away. Detlefsen’s 11th homer of the season capped the outburst and made it 7-0.

Caden Miller added two-run singles in the sixth and the seventh innings for the Roadrunners.

For the game, the left-side, swinging sophomore from Madisonville had three hits and five RBIs.

Detlefsen and Hallmark also had three-hit performances. It was only the second three-hit day of the season for Hallmark, a sophomore transfer out of Navarro College.

In Detlefsen’s case, he also produced three RBI, giving him a team-leading 39 in 31 games.

Freshman pitcher Christopher Gutierrez (1-0) earned the first victory of his college career after a season-high two and a third innings of relief.

Christian Okerholm started the game, followed by Gutierrez and Kendall Dove. Combined, the threesome held the Owls to only two hits, while walking four and striking out three.

Gutierrez is a lefty from Houston-area Spring and Ridgeland High School, who has been used mostly in a situational role to this point.

Entering the game with no outs and a runner on first base in the third, he pitched well into the fifth, allowing no runs on two hits and two walks, while striking out two.

Rice freshman Ty Thames (2-2) took the loss.

The big righthander from Wimberley worked three and a third innings. He allowed seven runs on five hits, though four of the runs were unearned.

Records

UTSA 22-10, 6-3
Rice 19-14, 4-5

Coming up

UTSA at Tarleton State, Tuesday, 4 p.m.
South Florida at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
South Florida at UTSA, Saturday, April 11, 2 p.m.
South Florida at UTSA, Sunday, April 12, 1 p.m.

Notable

UTSA recorded back-to-back shutout victories for the first time since it blanked Long Island, 13-0 and 15-0, both at home and in seven innings, on Feb. 22 and 23 in 2025.

The Roadrunners’ defense played error-free baseball for 26 straight innings at Rice, including 10 on Thursday, nine on Friday and seven on Saturday.

Miller and Detlefsen also had big weekends. Miller had eight hits in 13 at bats in the three games, pushing his batting average to .396 for the season.

Detlefsen’s average spiked to a team-leading .409 after he went six for 14.

UTSA freshman Aidan Eshelman started all three games at shortstop in the Rice series.

Blessed with a strong arm, he played solid defense this weekend and contributed offensively in the finale, scoring four runs.

UTSA’s first-year player from Houston Episcopal High School went two for three and drove in one in Game 3.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Lefthander Conor Myles pitched scoreless baseball into the seventh inning, and Drew Detlefsen drove in three runs with three hits, as the UTSA Roadrunners scored an 8-0 victory over the Rice Owls Friday night in Houston.

With the decision, the Roadrunners set themselves up to win their 14th straight series in American Conference play if they can score another victory in the finale, scheduled for noon on Saturday.

UTSA entered the day on a two-game losing streak, having lost on walk-offs against both the University of the Incarnate Word Tuesday night in San Antonio and to Rice in the series opener Thursday.

After falling to the Owls 3-2 in 10 innings on a bases-loaded walk a night earlier, the Roadrunners handed the ball to Myles, who pitched a gem.

The 6-foot-4 southpaw from Australia kept Rice off balance all night, working six and a third innings, allowing no runs and permitting only two hits.

Much of the time, Myles had the Owls hitting either soft fly balls or pop ups.

Myles, who earned the victory and improved to 4-1, combined with relievers Christopher Gutierrez and Connor Kelley for the second shutout of the season for Roadrunners pitching.

Kelley finished the game with six strikeouts in two innings.

Earlier, Rice stayed in the game behind starter Ethan Sanders. After allowing an unearned run in the second, the freshman righthander held UTSA scoreless for four straight innings.

Detlefsen produced a run-scoring single in a three-run seventh and a two-run single in a three-run eighth as the Roadrunners broke the game open.

Records

UTSA 21-10, 5-3
Rice 19-13, 4-4

Coming up

UTSA at Rice, Saturday, noon

Notable

The Roadrunners’ only other shutout victory this season came on March 7 in Las Cruces, N.M. when they downed the New Mexico State Aggies, 13-0.

In that game, Myles pitched five and a third innings in a contest that was stopped after seven innings on the run rule.

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Paul Smith drew a bases-loaded walk with two out in the 10th inning to force in the winning run, and the Rice Owls claimed a 3-2 victory over the UTSA Roadrunners Thursday night in American Conference baseball at Reckling Park.

With UTSA ace reliever Sam Simmons on the mound, Rice’s Landis Davila executed a one-out bunt single. Cole Green followed by fisting a ball off his bat handle that squibbed through the right side.

On the play, Davila advanced all the way to third. After Green advanced to second on defensive indifference, UTSA elected to walk Colin Robson intentionally to load the bases.

UTSA made a play at that point to cut off a run and get the second out of the inning. On a ground ball to second base, the throw came home to force a base runner at the plate.

After an umpire’s review, apparently to determine whether UTSA catcher Andrew Stucky had control of the ball, the call was allowed to stand.

Smith subsequently worked the count to 3-1 and then took a called second strike from Simmons. The next pitch was outside, allowing Green to score the winning run.

UTSA has played three straight games in which the outcome has been decided in walk-off fashion on the last play.

The Roadrunners split the first two, beating the East Carolina Pirates 8-7 in 10 innings Sunday at home on Caden Miller’s RBI single, and then losing Tuesday on the road to the UIW Cardinals, 13-11, on a three-run homer by Cole Tabor.

In the first game of a series at Rice’s Reckling Park, the pitching on both sides was top notch for most of the evening.

Rice starter and Tennessee transfer Tanner Wiggins worked seven innings and scattered 10 hits, allowing two runs, only one of them earned.

Another former Tennessee pitcher, Brayden Sharp, earned the win in hurling the last three innings scoreless, allowing only one hit.

The Rice duo was particularly tough with runners on base, limiting UTSA to 3-for-19 in those situations. The Roadrunners were 1-for-9 with runners in scoring positions.

UTSA, in the end, left nine runners stranded.

A painful sequence for the Roadrunners unfolded in the top of the 10th when Jacob Silva drew a two-out walk.

After he stole second base, the throw from the catcher got away, but Rice second baseman JC Davis retrieved it and made a heads-up play. He fired to third to end the inning, erasing Silva, who was trying to advance.

For UTSA, freshman pitcher Ryan Self allowed a run in the first inning and then yielded to Gunnar Brown, who worked the next six frames.

Brown, retiring 10 in a row at one point, permitted only a run on four hits through the seventh inning.

Simmons took the loss in two and two thirds of an inning. He yielded one run on two hits, with two walks and a strikeout.

Records

UTSA 20-10, 4-3
Rice 19-12, 4-3

Coming up

UTSA at Rice, Friday, 6:35 p.m.
UTSA at Rice, Saturday, 1:05 p.m.

Notable

UTSA cleanup hitter Andrew Stucky had four hits, including a second-inning solo homer. It was his eighth homer of the season and his second in his last two games.

Roadrunners left fielder Drew Detlefsen threw out a Rice baserunner trying to score from second in the second inning, his second assist on a throw from the outfield in the last two weeks.

He fielded a ball on the bounce, reached back and fired home to Stucky, the catcher, for the out.

Detlefsen did the same thing on March 24 at home against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, with Jacob Silva receiving the throw.

Rice beat UTSA for the first time since April of 2024 and broke a five-game losing streak against the Roadrunners. UTSA went 4-0 against Rice last season.

For the second straight week, UTSA has lost a weekend series opener in the American.

Last Friday, the East Carolina Pirates won 3-0 at UTSA, only to see the Roadrunners bounce back to take the next two to clinch their 13th straight series victory in conference play.