By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Riding an emotional roller coaster this week, UTSA Roadrunners will take on the Rice Owls in a three-game American Conference baseball series starting Thursday at Reckling Park in Houston.

In facing the Owls (18-12, 3-3), Head Coach Pat Hallmark’s Roadrunners (20-9, 4-2) are coming off some highs and lows over last four days.

On Sunday, they clinched their 13th straight conference series victory in the American with an 8-7, 10-inning win at home over the East Carolina Pirates.

Caden Miller delivered the winning hit on a walk-off with a single through the right side.

On Tuesday, they built a lead that reached four runs in both the fifth and sixth innings at Incarnate Word, only to lose the non-conference encounter with their cross-town rivals, 13-11, on a walk-off home run in the ninth.

The Roadrunners will have no time to lament the loss of a game they were expected to win, because they’ll need to focus their full attention on the Owls, who have won three in a row and nine of their last 14.

Rice’s Colin Robson had two hits in a home victory over the UTRGV Vaqueros on Tuesday. In his last four games, Robson has eight hits and eight RBIs.

Another player swinging a hot bat is Garet Boehm, who connected on a three-run home run against the FAU Owls on Saturday. Boehm followed on Sunday with a grand slam.

As a result, Rice bounced back from a 6-2 loss to FAU in the opener on Friday and won 5-2 and 8-1 on Saturday and Sunday to claim the series victory.

Rice defeated visiting UTRGV 6-4 on Tuesday.

Records

Rice 18-12, 3-3
UTSA 20-9, 4-2

Coming up

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