Tag Archives: American Athletic Conference baseball

Baseball: Roadrunners win a road series in Charlotte to start conference play

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners capped a strong week of play on Sunday with a 6-5 victory on the road against the Charlotte 49ers.

Playing four road games in the past six days, they won three of them, including an 8-7 victory in 12 innings last Tuesday over the eighth-ranked Texas Longhorns. They followed it up by winning two of three in Charlotte against the 49ers.

Charlotte started off strong in the first American Athletic Conference series of the season for both teams, winning 3-2 on Friday night.

Unfazed, UTSA pounded out 14 hits in a 10-3 victory on Saturday and then closed it out Sunday behind the hitting of Mason Lytle and James Taussig and the late-game, clutch pitching from Rob Orloski.

Lytle hit a two-run homer in a three-run fourth inning as the Roadrunners took the lead, 5-2. The 49ers, who have beaten the Roadrunners in conference tournament play in each of the past two seasons, kept chipping away and stayed in it until the end.

They scored two runs in the fifth inning and then added one in the eighth to tie the game when Orloski yielded a one-out, solo home run by Noah Furcht. Orloski, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Idaho, steadied himself and retired the next two batters to prevent further damage.

In the ninth, the Roadrunners took the lead for good. James Taussig rocketed a ball to the opposite field, into the left-center gap, for an RBI double. Caden Miller, who was running on the pitch, scored easily to make it 6-5.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark stayed with Orloski in the bottom half of the ninth, and the strategy paid off. The big righthander retired three straight batters to pick up the victory.

With the win, the 2023 draft pick of the Boston Red Sox improved his record to 7-0 on the season. Coming into the game in the fifth inning to relieve starter Conor Myles, Orloski battled through some control problems to finish the game.

In 4 and 2/3 innings, he yielded one run on one hit and four walks. Orloski struck out two.

Records

UTSA 19-7, 2-1
Charlotte 11-11, 1-2

Coming up

Texas State at UTSA, Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Notable

In three games at Charlotte, UTSA’s Mason Lytle was tough at the plate, stroking seven hits in 15 at bats with two home runs. He had an inside-the-park homer on Friday night and then jerked one over the left field wall in Sunday’s finale for his fourth of the season. UTSA defense also showed up, committing only one error in 27 innings in the AAC series.

Baseball: Roadrunners to open AAC play against the defending champion East Carolina Pirates

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Caleb Hill scores in the seventh inning on a hit by Matt King. UTSA scored four runs in the seventh inning to rally past Rice 9-7 in Conference USA baseball on Friday, May 5, 2023, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Caleb Hill and the UTSA Roadrunners will test the nationally-ranked East Carolina Pirates in a three-game series starting Friday at Roadrunner Field. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Defeated 14-13 on the road at Texas State on Tuesday night, the UTSA Roadrunners will prepare in the next few days for their historic first game in the American Athletic Conference. They’ll play Friday night at home against the 11th-ranked East Carolina Pirates.

East Carolina (15-4) will arrive at Roadrunner Field for a three-game series as the most accomplished baseball program in the AAC. The Greenville, N.C.-based Pirates have won four straight AAC regular-season championships.

Led by 10th-year coach Cliff Godwin, East Carolina has qualified for five straight NCAA tournaments, playing in the national event every year since 2018. During their streak, they stayed home only in 2020 when most of the season and the tournament was canceled because of the pandemic.

In the final analysis, the Roadrunners will have their hands full as they play their inaugural AAC weekend series following 10 seasons in Conference USA. While the Pirates have won eight straight games, the Roadrunners (10-11) have struggled to find consistency.

Matched against certain teams, their pitching has been vulnerable. Texas State, for instance, sent 16 batters to the plate and scored nine runs in the first inning Tuesday night in San Marcos. Roadrunners pitching walked 11 batters against the Bobcats.

The Roadrunners’ offense, in turn, always seems to give them a chance. Trailing by five runs after the first inning and by six runs after the third against the Bobcats, they battled back with 14 hits, including four home runs.

Tye Odom, Caleb Hill and Matt King sent balls over the fence in the second inning and freshman Diego Diaz added another in the ninth. A two-run blast by Diaz pulled the Roadrunners to within one run before the Bobcats shut down the rally.

Hill leads with a .419 batting average and seven home runs. Lytle, a transfer from Oregon, has made a major impact in his first season. Outside of starting in center field and leading the team in stolen bases with nine, he ranks among the team’s leaders in average (.359), home runs (four) and RBIs (19).

As a team, they’re hitting .305.

Records

East Carolina 15-4
UTSA 10-11

Notable

The Pirates are ranked 11th in the nation by D1 Baseball and 12th by Baseball America. Pirates pitcher Trey Yesavage is the No. 36 prospect for the 2024 MLB draft, according to MLB.com. This season, the 6-foot-4 righthander, a second-team All-American last year, is 4-0 with a 1.20 earned run average. He has struck out 49 and walked nine in 30 innings.