UTSA starts fast, rolls past Charlotte 11-1 in Biloxi

The UTSA Roadrunners backed Chance Kirby’s dominant pitching with 18 hits — including five by Bryan Arias — in rolling to an 11-1 victory over the Charlotte 49ers Thursday morning at the C-USA baseball tournament.

With the victory, UTSA advanced into the winners’ bracket.

The fifth-seeded Roadrunners are scheduled to play the top-seeded Southern Miss Golden Eagles on Friday at 12:30 p.m. at MGM Park in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Southern Miss advanced with a 2-0 victory over the UAB Blazers.

Quotable

“You never know what’s going to happen at 9 a.m. You don’t know if you’ll be asleep or if you’ll come out swinging.” — UTSA coach Jason Marshall.

Details, details

Bryan Arias is tearing it up at the C-USA tournament.

The UTSA junior from Marshall High School has five hits in five at bats in the tournament opener for both teams.

Highlights include a two-run homer in a nine-run third inning and a single and a stolen base in the seventh.

Kirby’s day

UTSA righthander Chance Kirby exited the game in the seventh inning, but not before he completely befuddled Charlotte’s offense.

Kirby worked 6 and 2/3 innings, giving up only a run on two hits. He no-hit the 49ers from the second through the seventh.

In the beginning

UTSA opened a 9-1 lead on Charlotte with a nine-run third inning.

Arias capped the explosion with a two-run homer over the left field scoreboard, his team-leading eighth of the year.

Charlotte took the lead on Kirby in the bottom of the first on an RBI single by Tommy Bullock.

Weather delays

UTSA and Charlotte were scheduled to play Wednesday night, but because of numerous weather delays, the game was scrapped and pushed back to Thursday morning.

Notes

Ben Brookover, who has a team-leading 47 RBI, did not play for UTSA.

Before the schedule change, lefthander Steven Dressler was the expected starter for the Roadrunners against Josh Maciejewski for Charlotte.

Neither player saw action.

UTSA clinches spot in C-USA tournament with victory at ODU

The UTSA Roadrunners have clinched a spot in the Conference USA baseball tournament.

UTSA assured itself of a chance to play for the C-USA’s postseason title by scoring an 11-3 victory Sunday at Old Dominion.

With the win, the Roadrunners took two of three in the series from the last-place Monarchs.

More importantly, in the long term, the win also settles UTSA’s travel plans for the last week of May.

UTSA will make the trip to Biloxi, Miss., as one of eight C-USA teams battling for the postseason title and the accompanying bid to the NCAA tournament.

Records

UTSA 28-21, 14-12
Old Dominion 15-33, 7-19

Highlights

Bryan Arias, a UTSA junior from Marshall, led off the game with his seventh home run of the season. The Roadrunners went on to score one run in the first inning, two in the second and one in the third for a 4-0 lead.

UTSA banged out 16 hits one day after getting shut out, 7-0, on a complete-game, five-hitter by ODU’s Morgan Maguire. Trent Bowles had three hits for UTSA, including his team-leading 16th double. He also stole his 14th base, which also leads the team.

Pitcher Chance Kirby enjoyed another quality start by pitching into the seventh inning and yielding two runs on seven hits. Kirby has eclipsed six innings pitched with two or fewer runs allowed in four straight games.

After picking up the win against Old Dominion, he improved his record to 5-4 with a team-best 2.93 earned run average.

Coming up

UTSA hosts Abilene Christian (non-conference) on Tuesday. UTSA completes the regular-season schedule next weekend with three home games against the C-USA’s Charlotte 49ers starting Thursday night.

The C-USA tournament is set for May 24-28 in Biloxi.