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