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Top-seeded UTSA rallies to beat No. 8 Rice on opening day at the AAC tournament

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

After top-seeded UTSA rallied to beat the No. 8 Rice Owls 4-2 Tuesday on opening day at the American Baseball Championship, Roadrunners outfielder James Taussig vowed to take a fishing trip on an off day with some of his teammates, his brother and his father.

It’ll be on the aqua blue saltwater somewhere outside of Clearwater, Fla.

“We’re going to hit the redfish hard,” Taussig told ESPN.

Trailing by a run going into the bottom of the eighth at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, the Roadrunners started to hit the baseball pretty hard to stoke a game-winning rally.

The Owls had one out when starting pitcher Davion Hickson threw a curve on a 2-2 count that grazed Caden Miller in the leg, sending him to first base with a free pass. He promptly moved to third when American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Mason Lytle singled into center field, giving the Roadrunners men at the corners.

With one of the Roadrunners’ top hitters coming to the plate, Hickson knew he would need to pitch carefully. But Taussig, who was named first-team all conference in the AAC on Monday, stroked a fastball in the middle of the plate for a two-run double that allowed UTSA to take the lead.

As his line drive split the gap between the outfielders in right and center, Miller scored easily and Lytle, a speedster, made it all the way around, beating a relay throw to the plate with a slide to make it 3-2.

Later, Norris McClure sliced an RBI single into left field off reliever Garrett Stratton, bringing Taussig in to score and giving the Roadrunners a two-run cushion. Reliever Robert Orloski (8-0) shut down the Owls in order in the top of the ninth to secure the Roadrunners’ first victory in a conference tournament since 2022.

Hickson (2-7) pitched into the eighth inning and took the loss.

“Great comeback,” UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said on a zoom call with the media. “That’s the opening statement. These guys keep doing it. So, happy to be along for the ride.”

Pitching, in many ways, carried the Roadrunners and helped them improve on their program record with 43 victories this season. In winning for the 14th time in their last 15 games, the Roadrunners limited the Owls to just two hits.

Starter Braylon Owens yielded both hits and gave up two runs, one of them earned, in 5 and 1/3 innings. The senior from Elgin pitched out of trouble a few times and struck out 11. Orloski worked the final 3 and 1/3 innings scoreless on no hits. The 6-foot-4 sophomore from Idaho, a one-time draft pick out of high school by the Boston Red Sox, struck out three and walked one.

On the offensive side, Taussig and Lytle both went three for four at the plate. Lytle, a senior from Pearland, staked UTSA to a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a solo home run.

The Owls played small ball and scored one run in the fifth and one in the sixth off Owens to take the lead.

In the fifth, a leadoff walk led to trouble for Owens and UTSA. As Tobias Motley bunted in front of the mound, Owens fielded it and threw wildly into center field. It put runners at first and third with nobody out. At that point, the Owls bunted again to tie the score. Colin Robson laid down a sacrifice to score Cole Green from third base, making it a 1-1 ball game.

The opportunistic Owls scored again in the sixth to take a 2-1 lead. With one out, Hiram Bocachica walked and stole second base. One out later, Paul Smith singled up the middle to score Bocachica. Hickson finished with 7 and 1/3 innings and seven strikeouts. He gave up four runs on seven hits.

Records

Rice 17-39
UTSA 43-11

Tuesday’s results

Tulane 6, Florida Atlantic 3
UTSA 4, Rice 2
Charlotte 7, Wichita State 1
East Carolina 9, South Florida 4

Wednesday’s games

Rice vs. Florida Atlantic, noon, elimination
Wichita State vs. South Florida, 47 minutes after conclusion of first game, elimination

Thursday’s games

Tulane vs. UTSA, noon, winners bracket
East Carolina vs. Charlotte, 47 minutes after conclusion of first game, winners bracket

Notable

UTSA swept four games from the Owls in the past six days. The Roadrunners won Thursday, Friday and Saturday in San Antonio and again on Tuesday in Clearwater.

Roadrunners infielder Norris McClure was knocked out of the series finale in San Antonio with a leg bruise, but he bounced back and picked up two hits and an RBI as the designated hitter in his first Division I tournament game. With the two hits, McClure extended his batting streak to 20 games.

Speculation continues to swirl around the Roadrunners and whether their win-loss record and their RPI, at No. 22 nationally coming into Tuesday, will yield an NCAA tournament bid next week.

During the Rice game, television commentators were projecting that UTSA would be in the 64-team field when it is announced next Monday.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark, whose team has won road games at Texas and Texas A&M, said on the postgame zoom that he didn’t know whether his team would make it and, with the rest of the AAC event to play, he said he doesn’t care about the speculation.

“Obviously I want to play in the regional but I don’t control that,” Hallmark said. “I’m focused on the team and the opponent. I don’t mean that in a negative way at all. I just know these questions are coming. (Three) years ago when we were making a run, when we got that RPI pretty solid, these same questions were coming and they’re hard to answer.

“I’ve seen the basketball coaches. They give the spiels and politic. Not me. Like, we’re going to play ball, and I’m happy to be a part of this group. I don’t know the answer, and I’m not going to worry about it, honestly. I’m going to prepare for Tulane and celebrate a little bit with the guys.”

UTSA defeated Tulane two out of three in a series earlier this season in San Antonio.

Coached by Jay Uhlman, the Green Wave have advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of the past two seasons by winning the AAC postseason crown. In 2023, they entered as a No. 7 seed and won four out of five to win the championship. Playing as a No. 3 seed in last spring, they went 4-0, downing Wichita State 11-10 in the title game. Tulane improved its record to 31-24 with the victory over Florida Atlantic.

Top-seeded UTSA opens conference tournament today in Florida against No. 8 Rice

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The UTSA baseball team watches as the seniors are honored on Saturday. UTSA beat Rice 7-0 in the final game of the regular season at Roadrunner Field on Saturday, May 17, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

The UTSA baseball team opens play today in the American Baseball Championship. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners might well be the only team at the American Baseball Championship that could fall short of the conference’s postseason title and still get an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Sitting at No. 22 in the ratings percentage index, or RPI, the top-seeded Roadrunners will tote a regular-season conference title and a 42-11 record into Tuesday’s opening game against the No. 8 Rice Owls.

It’s purely speculation, but if UTSA can beat Rice, and then tack on a couple more victories after that, they probably would stand a fair chance of gaining an at-large NCAA bid even if they were to lose in the championship game on Sunday.

But before traveling to Clearwater, Fla., where the American’s eight-team event will be played at the BayCare Ballpark, UTSA coach Pat Hallmark was asked if he had given thought about how many more wins he needed this week to secure the program’s first bid in 12 years.

He said he’s not really thinking in those terms.

“As much as we talk about expectations and playing a certain way, we don’t talk a ton about winning,” he said Saturday afternoon at Roadrunner Field. “Because, sometimes, winning is out of your control. We talk about the quality of the play. So, we’re going to try to go play quality baseball. Throw strikes. Swing at strikes.

“When we swing, we want ‘em to be violent swings. And then we talk about making one error or less in the field. That’s what we’re going to keep talking about, and if we do that, the wins will take care of themselves. Just like these 42 wins (in the regular season) did.”

UTSA hasn’t reached an NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, when the Roadrunners played in the Western Athletic Conference. They’ve been in contention in each of the past three seasons going into the 2022 and 2023 Conference USA tournaments and the 2024 American tournament.

But, each time, the Roadrunners failed to make the 64-team national field.

In 2022, at Hattiesburg, Miss., they entered as a No. 5 seed with 35 wins and won three straight games, beating the nationally-ranked, host-team Southern Miss Golden Eagles twice in a row, only to lose 9-8 in the championship game to Louisiana Tech. Even with 38 wins, a strong finish and an RPI of No. 37, it wasn’t good enough for UTSA to make the NCAA.

Two years ago, in their final season in the C-USA, they entered the tournament at Houston with 38 wins and high hopes. Though they were seeded second in the field, they dropped their opener to No. 7 Middle Tennessee, 5-1, and then lost again, falling 11-2 to No. 3 Charlotte.

Last season, in their first season in the American, they once again entered as a two seed but couldn’t hold serve.

Seventh-seeded Charlotte scored four runs in the top of the 12th inning and spoiled UTSA’s opener for the second year in a row, this time by a 9-5 count. Stunned, the Roadrunners had to play the next day and lost again, falling 12-5 to the FAU Owls.

With only 32 wins, their NCAA hopes were dashed.

This year, the Roadrunners have no intention of letting anything like that happen three years in a row. After winning the American title going away by five games over second-place Charlotte, they’re confident they have the best team.

In fact, outfielder James Taussig said that with 42 victories and wins over Texas and Texas A&M on the road, he “would hope” that UTSA would get an NCAA bid even if it were to go 0-2 again.

“I think our full season, our body of work, has shown that we’re a complete team and we can play in the postseason,” he said. “I don’t plan on going 0-2. I don’t think anyone out here is planning on going 0-2. We’re going to stay locked in and focused, because there’s another championship to win.”

In other words, winning the postseason crown will be just as much fun as taking home the regular season title, so that is the goal. “Exactly,” Taussig said.

UTSA catcher Andrew Stucky said last year’s disappointment in Clearwater will serve as motivation this time around.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “A couple of us have mentioned that, saying that it’s not going to happen again this year. But I think we’re going into it this year a whole lot more confident. Just in ourselves and each other. So, we’re really excited to go out there and just keep playing like we do.”

Records

Rice 17-38, 10-17
UTSA 42-11, 23-4

Coming up

AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., with top-seeded UTSA playing No. 8 Rice today. The tournament will run through May 25 at the BayCare Ballpark.

Tuesday, May 20

(All times Central)
Game 1: No. 5 Tulane vs. No. 4 Florida Atlantic | 8 a.m. | ESPN+
Game 2: No. 8 Rice vs. No. 1 UTSA | 47 minutes after Game 1 | ESPN+
Game 3: No. 7 Wichita State vs. No. 2 Charlotte | 3 p.m. | ESPN+
Game 4: No. 6 East Carolina vs. No. 3 South Florida | 47 minutes after Game 3 | ESPN+

Hallmark says that surging UTSA could make a run at the College World Series

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Nathan Hodge home run. His brother Ty Hodge is partially hidden behind him. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

Nathan Hodge (11) gets the ‘boom’ treatment from older brother Ty Hodge after slamming a two-run home run in the third inning. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Inspiring hope for a deep run in the NCAA tournament this season and for an improved fan experience in coming years, the UTSA Roadrunners just keep adding to their legacy as perhaps the best baseball team in school history.

Two weeks ago in Florida, they clinched at least a share of the regular-season title in the American Athletic Conference. Last weekend in North Carolina, they won the title outright.

Returning home to San Antonio this week, they opened their ninth and final three-game, AAC series against the Rice Owls, won the first game and set the school record for victories in a season.

UTSA starting pitcher Conor Myles. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA starting pitcher Conor Myles (5-1) earned the victory after pitching five innings. He allowed four runs on seven hits. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Now, a day later, they’ve taken yet another step in their journey. The Roadrunners jumped on the Owls early Friday night, scored five runs in the first inning off J.D. McCracken, and then kept on applying the pressure throughout the evening en route to an easy 11-4 decision.

UTSA is now 2-0 against Rice in the series leading into Saturday’s regular-season finale, meaning that they have effectively run the table, winning all nine of their three-game sets against AAC competition.

Brothers Ty and Nathan Hodge, who played shortstop and third base, respectively, led the charge against the Owls with three RBI apiece. Ty Hodge slapped a two-run single to highlight a five-run first inning and Nathan, the younger of the brothers from College Station, slammed a two-run home run in the third.

When his second homer of the season landed in the screen above the left field wall, the Roadrunners had built a 7-3 lead. The Owls cut the deficit to three runs in the middle of the game but couldn’t do much more than watch the Roadrunners pull away for their 41st victory of the season.

With the win, the Roadrunners improved to 41-11 on the season and 22-4 in conference. They have won 16 of their last 18 games and are 15-2 in their last 17 in the AAC.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said Friday night that he thinks the team has the potential to reach College World Series in Omaha, Neb. His statement came after a reporter asked if he thought that his program had reached a ceiling on what he believed it could achieve when he took the job back in 2020.

What the team has accomplished to this point in the season isn’t the ceiling, he said.

“This team can go to Omaha,” Hallmark added.

He said the Roadrunners will need to “keep being competitive hitters” and to identify maybe a few more reliable pitchers on the roster to help them maneuver through the AAC postseason and the first two weekends of the NCAA tournament.

“I don’t think we’ve reached our ceiling,” Hallmark said. “The ceiling is Omaha. That’s what we’re going for. We need to find a guy or two, like, the guys who are going to pitch tomorrow. We need to find three to six outs. Because with five guys? I don’t know if we can get through an entire regional with only five guys, which is what we’ve got now. We probably could. But that’s five guys who all have to pitch (well).

“Nobody can have a bad game, and that’s hard to do. It’s like hitting. All nine guys don’t (normally) have good games. So the ceiling is higher than what we’ve already done.”

With the AAC tournament starting next week in Clearwater, Fla., Hallmark suggested that the top-seeded Roadrunners shouldn’t put any limits on what they believe they can achieve. He said that at the start of this season, he would have been happy with the current results.

But he now sees this UTSA team as comparable in ability as Rice teams in 2006, 2007 and 2008 that reached the College World Series.

“This team can play offense with any of them, and defense,” he said. “And our top five pitchers are as good as some of them. But we may have been a little deeper on the mound on those (teams at Rice).”

Braylon Owens. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

Senior Braylon Owens pitched two and two thirds scoreless innings in his last game at Roadrunner Field. – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA is 20th in the NCAA’s ratings percentage index, or, RPI. The team is also ranked 25th in Baseball America, one of the prominent college baseball media polls. Playing at home, the Roadrunners have been nearly unbeatable this season. They’re 24-2 and riding a six-game winning streak at Roadrunner Field.

Fan interest in the team also is growing. Despite opening-pitch temperatures in the first two games of the Rice series hovering at 100 degrees, the grandstands and the outlying areas have been bustling with people, many of them hunkering down in the shade of trees on the left field side of the ball park complex.

Hallmark said it’s satisfying to see the uptick in interest compared to his first few games in the 2020 season.

“I don’t think much about it when the game is going on,” he said. “I’m kind of busy. But coach (Ryan) Aguayo and I talk about it, because we’ve been here the whole time, when there weren’t many people here besides the parents. And I still think there could be more.”

The coach suggested that modest improvements to the layout of the current facility could make it attractive.

“I think the footprint of the field is wonderful,” he said as he stood in the home team dugout, looking around at the compplex. “But if we can do some stuff back here with the entry-way (into the stadium) and even over here in the arbor … where all these trees are, if we can make that a little nicer with a deck and some nicer (grand) stands, people will come out here.”

He said he thinks baseball at UTSA can be self-sustaining financially if a little more can be done to make the fans feel more comfortable.

“Baseball is not typically a revenue-generating sport,” he said. “But I was at Rice University from (2005 to 2017) and we generated revenue. There’s no reason we can’t do that here. Besides the product on the field, we need to give them a comfortable environment to sit in and watch the game in shade and all those types of things, and I think it’ll come.”

Records

Rice 17-37, 10-16
UTSA 41-11, 22-4

Coming up

Rice at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m. (end of the regular season)
AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., Tuesday through Sunday, May 25

Notable

The Roadrunners will salute 10 athletes Saturday on Senior Day, including starters Mason Lytle, James Taussig, Andrew Stucky and Norris McClure. Also among the group are starting pitchers Braylon Owens and Conor Myles. Four others are Ty Tilson, Lorenzo Morresi, Garrett Gruell and Jake Cothran.

Ty Hodge. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

Ty Hodge had two hits in three at bats and drove in three runs as UTSA won its second game in two days against Rice. .- Photo by Joe Alexander

Crunch time: Every game down the stretch will affect UTSA’s NCAA chances

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Pat Hallmark. UTSA beat Rice 15-7 on Thursday night in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Pat Hallmark’s UTSA Roadrunners are pushing for a strong finish to the season in hopes of securing a berth in the NCAA tournament. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Lefthander Conor Myles will start for the UTSA Roadrunners Friday night against the Rice Owls as they attempt a nine-for-nine achievement in the American Athletic Conference.

In other words, the AAC’s regular-season champions are playing their ninth and final conference series of the season, and they’re hoping to run the table and win them all.

Roadrunners coach Pat Hallmark said it’s an important goal to achieve, but he said it’s at least equally important that they win Friday and also Saturday, if possible, to bolster their hopes of a berth in the NCAA tournament.

“That’s where the wins matter a lot,” Hallmark said. “We’re trying to keep ourselves in a position to kind of push that (NCAA) at large (bid possibility). People keep telling us we’re in, and that’s awesome. But three years ago we thought we were in, also. It’s always on our mind. So, yeah, we’d like to win the series because of that and to win every conference series.”

After UTSA rallied from a seven-run deficit to down Rice Thursday night, 15-7, the two teams are scheduled to play again Friday at 6 p.m. and again on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Roadrunner Field.

UTSA (now 40-11 and 21-4 in the AAC) entered the Rice series at No. 20 in the NCAA’s ratings percentage index, or, RPI. They remained 20th when the new RPI was published after Thursday night. It’s a good place to be in terms of the team’s hopes to reach the 64-team NCAA tournament.

But it’s also worth wondering what a loss to Rice or even two more losses might mean for the team’s long-term goals.

That is apparently why Hallmark mentioned the heartbreaking end to the team’s season three years ago. After winning on the road twice at nationally-ranked Southern Mississippi in the 2022 Conference USA tournament, and then losing to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the finals, the Roadrunners settled in at No. 37 on the RPI and did not get an NCAA invitation.

The coach obviously hopes to avoid something like that this season.

If, say, the Roadrunners were to lose twice to Rice in the next few days and then lose the first two games of the AAC tournament next week in Florida, what would happen to their RPI? How far would they fall? How would the NCAA tournament selection committee view a non-power conference team that won eight straight AAC series and won 40 games, but then failed to finish strong?

Thinking about the team’s future in terms of a worst-case scenario also invites speculation on how much UTSA gained Thursday night by coming from behind to win. As it turned out, Rice (17-36, 10-15) actually ascended three spots on the RPI, moving up to No. 209, by collapsing and losing to the Roadrunners with 10 walks and three errors.

If Rice actually advanced in the RPI with such a dispiriting loss, how far would UTSA have fallen if it had failed to rally? Perhaps thinking back to what happened in 2022, Hallmark clearly was upset with his team’s lack of urgency in the first few innings.

“We were down 7-0 and getting no-hit,” he said. “I was frustrated. I didn’t think we were playing well. We were playing (passively) … I just thought we were playing a little soft, a little bit weak. Which boiled down to one or two reasons. Either we were a little arrogant coming out here slightly cocky, slightly arrogant. Or, we were playing like we didn’t want to mess up.

“I’m not sure which, but that’s the way we were playing, so I just kind of told them, this isn’t the way we play. We’re down seven nothing at this point. I said, ‘We might not win this game, but let’s try to play baseball (aggressively). If we screw this up and make a bunch of of mistakes, we need to make ’em aggressively, so, we were fortunate.

“Their pitcher walked us a little bit, but, some of those walks, you got to earn them, too. But that helped us … You could see the momentum shifting.”

After the Roadrunners rallied to win going away, Hallmark reflected on reaching the 40-win milestone, a first for a program that won 39 games in both 1994 and 2008.

“I’m proud of the team,” he said. “I tell everyone that will listen at this point, these kids are wonderful. They’re wonderful people. They’re good at baseball. I’ve been part of other good baseball teams. But the difference in this team is the quality of the person … wonderful. It’s hard to get on ’em. Actually had to motivate myself in the fourth inning to get a little pissed at ’em, the way we were playing, because I like ’em so much.

“I usually have no problem getting on people. They’re a bunch of good people, and I’m lucky to get to coach ’em.”

Records

Rice 17-36, 10-15
UTSA 40-11, 21-4

Coming up

Rice at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Rice at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m. (end of the regular season)
AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., starting Tuesday.
The tournament runs through next weekend, with the finals on Sunday, May 25.

Notable

The only team in the AAC assured of a bid to the NCAA tournament is the winner of the conference’s postseason event in Florida. Eight of 10 AAC teams will qualify, and the Owls are one of them, so they are still in contention for that NCAA automatic bid. UTSA is likely the only team in the AAC with a shot at an at-large bid. As the UTSA coach has noted, speculation is that the Roadrunners are in good shape to be in an NCAA regional. But if the Roadrunners come up short of a title in Clearwater, their fate would be up to a selection committee. That is why it’s so important for them to win Friday and Saturday, if possible.

UTSA wins its 40th game of the season to set a school record after rallying to down Rice, 15-7

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Norris McClure slides safely into home to tie the game 7-7 on Drew Detlefsen's three-run double in the fifth inning. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Norris McClure slides safely into home to tie the game 7-7 on Drew Detlefsen’s three-run double in the fifth inning. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA baseball established a program record with its 40th victory of the season on Thursday night at Roadrunner Field.

The Roadrunners did it when they rallied from a seven-run deficit to down the Rice Owls 15-7 in the opener of the last series of the regular season. The teams are set to play again Friday and Saturday at UTSA.

Down by a 7-0 score and hitless through four and a third innings, the Roadrunners started to come alive when freshman Caden Miller slammed a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Miller’s blast over the right field wall broke up the no-no and propelled UTSA to a seven-run inning.

After the home run, Diego Diaz struck out swinging, giving Rice starter Jackson Blank an opening to limit UTSA to just one run. But it was not meant to be for Blank or the Owls, as Garrett Gruell reached base on an infield throwing error.

After that, the wheels came off for the Owls.

First, UTSA’s Jordan Ballin drew a walk from Blank, who was then pulled out the game by Rice coach David Pierce. Reliever Garrett Stratton entered and had no better luck, as he walked Mason Lytle to load the bases. Stratton, coming unraveled, proceeded to walk both James Taussig and Andrew Stucky in succession to force in a runner each time.

Next, Stratton threw a curve ball that got away from him and he hit Norris McClure on the leg, forcing in another run to pull UTSA within three. At that point, Drew Detlefsen took advantage of the situation and drove a ball to right field for a three-run double to tie the game, 7-7.

The Roadrunners added three more runs in the sixth and five in the seventh to turn it into a runaway.

With the victory, the Roadrunners improved to 40-11 overall and 21-4 in the American Athletic Conference. After UTSA started baseball in 1992, the team won 39 games in its third season of existence, in 1994, and won 39 again in 2008.

Under Coach Pat Hallmark, the Roadrunners won 38 in both 2022 and 2023 before breaking through this season with a team that just refuses to fold when it’s faced with adversity.

“We just have some tough people,” Hallmark said.

In the last month, the Roadrunners have steadily pulled away from the pack to become the dominant team in the American Athletic Conference. They’ve posted a 15-2 record in their last 17 games overall, including 14-2 in conference play.

They got so hot they clinched at least a share of the AAC title on May 4 at South Florida and then won it outright last Friday on the first night of a three-game series at East Carolina.

The title is UTSA’s first in 17 years, and the Roadrunners will be the No. 1 seed in the AAC tournament next week. But first, they want to close out the regular season the way they have played all year — by winning.

Miller said he wants to win the next two games for the seniors who will be playing their last few games at home.

“A lot of them took us under their wing,” Miller said. “Mason Lytle, James Taussig, Andrew Stucky, and many other guys … It’s really huge to have guys like that who have been here and have played college baseball for three to five years. And, you know, you come out here, and you’re able to talk to these guys like you’ve known ’em forever.

“It’s very helpful and it’s very exciting to have guys like that who have done this. We’re able to talk to them about what’s going on, how things are going. Yeah, I want to send these guys off with a bang. Send them off with a series win this week at the Bird Bath one last time.”

Records

Rice 17-36, 10-15
UTSA 40-11, 21-4

Coming up

Rice at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Rice at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m.

Notable

UTSA set two other records Thursday night. First, Ballin established the program’s freshman mark for walks in a season with 37. Ryan Arevalos set the previous record of 36 in 1992. In addition, the team set the record for most RBI in a season with 431. Coming into the Rice game, the Roadrunners were tied for the previous mark of 419, set originally in 2008.

Miller finished the game three for five at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI. Garrett Gruell had one hit in four at bats with a run scored and two RBI. Two hitting streaks were extended, by Taussig (to 18 games) and by McClure (to 17 games).

As for the UTSA pitching, starter Zach Royse had a tough day, allowing seven runs on eight hits in four innings. Royse gave up three home runs, including a three-run blast to Landon West in the first inning, a Paul Smith solo shot in the second and a three-run blow by Cole Green in the fourth. Green’s blast gave the Owls a 7-0 lead.

Replacing Royse, Sam Simmons (1-0) earned his first victory of his UTSA career by pitching two scoreless innings of relief. Rob Orloski and Kendall Dove blanked the Owls the rest of the way, with Orloski striking out four in 1 and 2/3 innings. Dove fanned two in 1 and 1/3.

When Dove entered to pitch in the eighth inning, Orloski didn’t leave the game. He stayed and played left field. He remained in left through the ninth inning, giving UTSA the opportunity to bring him back to pitch if necessary. It’s the second time in eight days that UTSA has used Orloski as an outfielder after a relief pitching appearance.

For the Roadrunners, it’s an experimentation on strategy to prepare for an occasion in the postseason when they might need to have the hard-throwing righthander pitch at different times of the game. Orloski did just that against East Carolina, pitching in the seventh inning, coming out to play the outfield for a time in the eighth and then re-entering when the Pirates rallied.

Rice pitcher Davion Hickson was a surprise scratch from the lineup. “He just wasn’t ready,” a Rice spokesman said. Hickson had been pitching well as the team’s Friday night starter, giving up only five runs in 24 and 2/3 innings over his last three starts. On May 2, the junior righthander pitched a nine-inning complete game shutout against Charlotte, allowing only one hit and three walks while striking out nine.

Robert Orloski. UTSA beat Rice 15-7 on Thursday night in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Robert Orloski struck out four in 1 and 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. He yielded just one hit. – Photo by Joe Alexander

AAC champion UTSA prepares to host the David Pierce-coached Rice Owls

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Emotions on the baseball diamond always run a little higher than usual when the Rice Owls show up as the visiting team at Roadrunner Field.

This year, a little more spice has been added with UTSA having already clinched its first conference title in 17 years. In addition, there’s also the impending meeting between head coaches who know each other well.

UTSA beat Oakland (Michigan) 13-3 on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA’s Pat Hallmark has led the Roadrunners to the American Athletic Conference regular-season title. He’ll face a coaching friend in David Pierce this weekend when UTSA hosts Rice at Roadrunner Field.- File photo by Joe Alexander

In another era, UTSA’s Pat Hallmark and Rice’s David Pierce spent six seasons together on the same coaching staff.

From 2006-11, they both toiled at Rice under Wayne Graham, a coaching legend in Texas baseball circles who led the Owls to six College World Series and one national title during his 27 years at the Houston-based private school.

With UTSA and Rice set to meet in a three-game AAC series from Thursday through Saturday, the two have already been in communication.

Pierce worked at Rice as an assistant in 1999 and from 2003-11 and Hallmark from 2006-16. Asked about the possible complications of coaching against someone he knows, Hallmark downplayed it.

“Oh, there’s no complications,” Hallmark said. “I want to beat him more than if I didn’t know him. And he knows that. We’re friends. We texted this morning. I have nothing but respect for David and what he’s done in his career. His resume’ is very impressive … He’s a wonderful coach. Great competitor. Very, very competitive.

“We have that in common. We might get into it this weekend, but in the long run, we’ll be friends.”

After Rice announced a coaching change on March 13, Jose Cruz Jr. was out. By March 17, the Owls had hired Pierce, a veteran with more than 500 victories as a head coach.

Pierce’s nine seasons at Rice saw the Owls win a conference title and qualify for the NCAA tournament each year, earn five national seeds, and advance to five Super Regionals and four College World Series, winning the title in 2003.

As a head coach since 2012, he took Sam Houston, Tulane, and Texas to a combined 11 regionals, four super regionals, and three College World Series. He came to Rice with a 494-271 record in 13 seasons.

This season, the Owls were 4-17 before he took over. They’ve posted a 13-18 record since. Rice will come into San Antonio with a 17-35 record overall, including 10-14 in the AAC.

Hallmark, in his sixth year at UTSA, has led the Roadrunners to a 39-11 record, including 20-4 in the AAC. With one more victory, the Roadrunners will break the program record for victories in a season.

Records

Rice 17-35, 10-14
UTSA 39-11, 20-4

Coming up

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

AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., May 20-25

Notable

Last weekend, UTSA won two of three at East Carolina for its eighth series victory in eight tries in AAC play.

“It was a good weekend for us,” Hallmark said on his weekly zoom call with the media. “You go to ECU and you win two out of three, I think you should be pleased, so we are. Would have liked to have the third one. but we just didn’t close it out. So, a little disappointed in that. But, still a good weekend.”

On May 4 in Tampa, Fla., UTSA clinched a tie for the AAC title with a 3-2 victory over South Florida.

After returning home to San Antonio, UTSA traveled out on the road again and clinched the AAC crown outright in an 8-5 victory over East Carolina last Friday night in Greenville, N.C.

In a Saturday doubleheader, the Roadrunners won their 10th straight game by downing the Pirates, 7-6. But in the second game, East Carolina rallied late with four straight runs over the last two innings to win 8-7.

AAC standings

UTSA 20-4, 39-11
Charlotte 15-9, 31-20
South Florida 14-10, 27-22
Florida Atlantic 13-11, 33-18
Tulane 13-11, 30-21
East Carolina 12-12, 28-23
Rice 10-14, 17-35
Memphis 8-16, 21-30
Wichita State 8-16, 16-34
UAB 7-17, 23-28

x-Top eight qualify for the AAC tournament

Relief pitcher Robert Orloski. UTSA beat Youngstown State 4-3 on James Taussig's walk-off hit on Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA relief specialist Robert Orloski earned the save in both victories at East Carolina last weekend. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Rice women upset top-seeded UTSA in AAC tournament

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UTSA forward Jordyn Jenkins, the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year, scored a game-high 22 points as the Roadrunners fell to the Rice Owls in the AAC tournament quarterfinals. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The Rice women’s basketball team cooked up some of its American Athletic Conference postseason magic on Monday in Fort Worth, upsetting the top-seeded UTSA Roadrunners, 62-58.

As a result, the No. 9 Owls will move into the semifinals with two victories under their belt, hoping to repeat last year’s four-game run that ended with a trophy for the AAC crown and a ticket to the NCAA tournament.

The loss leaves UTSA’s postseason destination in question.

At 26-4, the Roadrunners will hope for an at-large bid into the NCAA. But perhaps a more realistic path forward will lead to the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament, or, the WBIT.

Guard Sidney Love matched her jersey number with 11 points and had five assists for the Roadrunners. – Photo by Joe Alexander

As the AAC’s regular-season champions, UTSA is an automatic qualifier for the WBIT and is expected to play in it should the program not receive the NCAA invitation.

On Monday morning, UTSA earned mention as a team receiving votes in the Associated Press Top 25 poll for the first time in the program’s 44-year history.

In turn, Rice seemed undeterred by the prospect of facing a team that had won nine straight games and had swept through the AAC regular season with a 17-1 record.

For the most part, the Owls carried the fight to the Roadrunners in the game played at Dickies Arena.

Rice outplayed UTSA in both the second and third quarters and then withstood a UTSA charge in the fourth to salt away the victory.

“I’m just really, really proud of our fight and our preparation for this game today,” Rice coach Lindsay Edmonds said. “We had a little bit of a get-back mentality. We’ve had two battles (with UTSA) this season that we felt could have (gone) our way but didn’t.”

In the first of two regular-season meetings, UTSA roared from behind with a 24-9 fourth quarter to beat the Owls 67-58 on Jan. 8 in San Antonio.

In the rematch, on Feb. 22 in Houston, UTSA jumped out to a 22-6 lead deep into the first quarter and then held on to win 57-55 when Rice’s Dominique Ennis missed a three at the buzzer.

“Today we wanted to play 40 minutes, and we did that,” Edmonds said. “It was a well-balanced attack … a great win. Really, really impressed with our composure and poise.”

Karen Aston. Rice 62-58 in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on Monday, March 10, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Karen Aston’s Roadrunners will leave Fort Worth with a 26-4 record. They’re guaranteed a bid in the Women’s Basketball Invitation Tournament if they don’t get an at-large bid to the NCAA, – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA started a run at the outset of the fourth quarter, scoring the first eight points in an 11-3 stretch over five minutes and 20 seconds. When Jordyn Jenkins hit a driving layup, the Roadrunners pulled to within 52-51 with 4:40 remaining.

From there, Rice guard Victoria Flores nailed two three-point shots to ignite an 8-0 run, lifting the Owls into a 60-51 advantage and sending UTSA into scramble mode.

In the final 1:41, the Roadrunners could get no closer than the final margin of four, and that came with no time left on the clock when Jenkins followed in a missed three at the buzzer.

“Sometimes you need a little time to reflect on a loss like this,” UTSA coach Karen Aston said. “(Rice) played with a lot of intention, a lot of energy today, and we couldn’t seem to match it.

“We tried. I thought there were times that we tried to rally ourselves in timeouts, but we just couldn’t match the energy they played with.”

Senior Malia Fisher led the way for the Owls with a team-high 16 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Fisher assisted on the three that gave the Owls the late nine-point lead.

Also, freshman Aniah Alexis enjoyed her second strong tournament game with 15 points and nine rebounds. Ennis scored 13.

For the Roadrunners, Jenkins scored 22 points but missed her first eight field goal attempts and finished nine of 25 from the floor. The AAC Player of the Year also had seven rebounds and two steals.

Cheyenne Rowe scored 12 points on five-for-five shooting, and guard Sidney Love added 11. Nina De Leon Negron struggled, shooting zero for nine from the field. She produced two points, six rebounds, three assists and a couple of steals.

Records

Rice 16-16
UTSA 26-4

Coming up

The NCAA bracket will be revealed on Sunday. If the Roadrunners don’t get a bid, they’re expected to play in the WBIT. First-round WBIT games are scheduled for March 20.

First half

Fisher and Alexis combined for 18 points in the first half as the Owls took a 32-28 lead on the UTSA Roadrunners.

Nina De Leon Negron. Top-seeded UTSA lost to ninth-seeded Rice 62-58 in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on Monday, March 10, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA point guard Nina De Leon Negron had two points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals. She shot zero for nine from the field. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Rice held Jenkins scoreless in the first period and for much of the second before Jenkins came alive with seven before halftime.

Both teams went without scoring a point for almost the first three minutes of the game before UTSA’s Idara Udo hit a jumper with 7:14 remaining.

UTSA kept battling and forged a five-point advantage with 39 seconds left on a Cheyenne Rowe driving layup.

Fisher, who scored eight in the quarter, hit a shot at the end to bring Rice to within 13-11.

In the second quarter, the Owls picked up the pace, with Alexis stroking jumpers from the perimeter.

The freshman from Cypress Lakes High School in Waller scored eight in the quarter.

Notable

Rice played on Sunday in the second round and advanced through to the quarterfinals with a 76-63 victory over the UAB Blazers. In that game, Alexis led the Owls with 18 points and five rebounds.

UTSA was playing its first game in the tournament, as it had claimed a double bye to the quarterfinals by way of a top-four finish in the regular season.

The Roadrunners had reached the conference tournament semifinals in each of the past two seasons, in Conference USA in 2022-23 and in their first year in the American last year.

Cheyenne Rowe. Top-seeded UTSA lost to ninth-seeded Rice 62-58 in the quarterfinals of the American Athletic Conference women's basketball tournament at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth on Monday, March 10, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Forward Cheyenne Rowe hit five for five from the field and scored 12 points off the bench. – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA men just needed to ‘exhale’ before ending their six-game skid

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Austin Claunch. UTSA beat Rice 84-56 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Austin Claunch exhorts senior Primo Spears during Sunday night’s blowout victory over the Rice Owls. Spears and sophomore Marcus Millender scored 25 points apiece and combined for nine three pointers. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

For the past few weeks, UTSA coach Austin Claunch has tried to find the key to unlocking his players’ potential as a team. Just how, during a six-game losing streak, could he get them to finish games that they often started so well and then frittered away at the end?

Following a loss in overtime last Sunday at East Carolina after they led by nine with 13 minutes left in regulation, they came home and, basically, did nothing for three days. They rested and recharged. Then they returned to work on Thursday to open a stretch of three straight days of practices.

Back together again, they preached composure. Talked about keeping a cool head while playing their frenetic style. The strategy worked well on Sunday night as they blew out the Rice Owls in the second half of an 84-56 victory at the Convocation Center.

Marcus Millender celebrates after hitting a second-half 3-pointer. UTSA beat Rice 84-56 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Marcus Millender made nine of 10 shots from the field en route to 25 points against Rice. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Afterward, guards Marcus Millender and Primo Spears flanked Claunch in the post-game press conference, and the coach talked with some passion about how the team managed to climb out of its funk to start the last week of its run through the American Athletic Conference schedule.

“I’ve been through a similar stretch,” Claunch said. “Listen, at the end of the day, these two guys (Millender and Spears) are every day guys. They’re going to play basketball for a long time. There’s going to be other years that maybe it doesn’t go exactly as it’s planned and what’s been frustrating about this stretch is, you don’t even feel like you’re close. You feel like you’re there.

“You just got to make one more play. But, again, it says a lot about these guys’ character, and how they were raised and who they are. You guys see all the close games, but you don’t see, like, we’re having great practices. And that is why we’re in these games even when we’re losing.

“That’s why we had three incredible days of practices (leading into the Rice game). Obviously we’re the last team with the bye (into the upcoming AAC tournament), and we had three days off. We didn’t do anything Monday through Wednesday, and, you know, these guys just need to exhale a little bit.

“Tonight was just a product of three really good days (of practice) and then just trust and leadership, starting with these two, but everyone. Damari (Monsanto), it’s not always about shooting threes, he’s plus 19 out there. He was the Texas Tough winner.

“And I thought Tai’Reon Joseph, Jo (Smith), the bench, just came in and provided incredible energy.

“It’s about time Bab (freshman Baboucarr Njie) dunked one. I’ve been giving him a hard time. So, again, it’s just a total team effort, and it’s fun. You know, that was complementary basketball (tonight). Defense to offense. Offense to defense. And we’re going to need more if we’re going to make a push for this thing.”

Baboucarr Njie. UTSA beat Rice 84-56 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Emblematic of solid bench play for UTSA, freshman Baboucarr Njie dunks in the second half of UTSA’s 84-56 blowout victory over Rice. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Spears and Millender scored 25 points each, and the Roadrunners exploded past the Owls 53-33 in the second half. With the win, UTSA gained a confidence boost leading into a Tuesday night home game against the 18th-ranked Memphis Tigers.

For the second time this season, Spears and Millender confounded the Owls. Spears had 26 points and Millender 25 on Jan. 14 in a 90-84 win at Houston.

The two heated up again in the re-match against their in-state rivals. Millender hit nine of 10 shots from the field, including three of four from three-point territory. He also passed for seven assists.

Spears was nine of 16 afield and six of nine from deep. The senior from Hartford, Conn., one of the day’s honorees on Senior Day, scored 19 of his points in a sizzling second half.

So, with 174 points scored against the Owls in two games, the opening question in the post-game news conference centered on why the Roadrunners’ offense seems to flow so well against their AAC friends from Houston.

“Our offense has been like that all season,” Millender said. “In practice, we go hard every day. We know where our spots are going to be at all times, especially me and Pri — the dynamic duo. The past two times we’ve seen Rice, we both combined for 50 plus. So, we just went out there and played hard.”

Spears, whose parents made the trip to San Antonio for Senior Day, said it felt good to snap the losing streak.

Jonnivius Smith. UTSA beat Rice 84-56 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Jonnivius Smith produced 15 points, nine rebounds and two blocks off the bench. – Photo by Joe Alexander

“(It means) everything, especially going into Tuesday, giving us a little confidence,” he said. “I thought we’ve just been playing really well. Even with the win column not looking as good as it is, I think we’ve played really well for 35 minutes of game time.

“So in this week off, we stressed being composed in the last five minutes of the game. I thought me and No. 4 (Millender) did a great job.”

Caden Powell scored 12 points to lead the Owls.

Records

Rice 13-17, 4-13
UTSA 11-17, 5-11

Coming up

Memphis at UTSA, Tuesday, 6 p.m.
UTSA at Charlotte, Sunday, March 9, 3 p.m.

First half

Millender scored on a drive and then hit a three to spark a 9-2 run late in the first half as the UTSA Roadrunners broke open a close game and moved into a 31-23 lead at intermission.

Two UTSA seniors went down and limped off late in the half. First, Spears came off with less than five minutes left, appearing to favor his left leg or foot. He returned a few minutes later and scored on a driving layup.

In the last few seconds of the half, Monsanto leaped to make a play on the defensive end and came down hard, hitting the floor in front of the UTSA bench. He, too, was helped off as the team walked toward the dressing room at intermission.

UTSA’s defense kept Rice from getting much momentum started, as the Roadrunners held the Owls to 26.7 percent shooting from the floor. UTSA, in shooting 37.5 percent, made three from beyond the 3-point arc.

Monsanto hit two of the triples and Millender stroked the other. Meanwhile, the Owls hit only one of 11 shots from outside the arc, some of them uncontested that must missed.

Notable

In the pregame, UTSA honored Primo Spears, Damari Monsanto and Raekwon Horton on Senior Day. Monsanto had six points and three rebounds, but was, as Claunch mentioned, a robust plus 19 on the plus-minus chart. Horton had two points and seven rebounds in 19 minutes.

PJ Haggerty scored 25 points, including 17 in the final 12 minutes, as Memphis came back from an 11-point deficit to beat UAB 88-81 on Sunday in Birmingham.

With the win, the Tigers (24-5, 14-2) moved closer to an AAC regular-season title. Memphis leads North Texas (21-6, 12-3) by one game in the loss column. UAB (19-10, 12-4) fell two games back.

Tuesday’s game will mark the return of former UTSA guard P.J. Carter, a key reserve for the Tigers. Carter played for the Roadrunners last season. He is averaging 5.4 points in 14.1 minutes for Coach Penny Hardaway in Memphis.

Primo Spears. UTSA beat Rice 84-56 in American Athletic Conference men's basketball on Sunday, March 2, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Connecticut native Primo Spears hit six three-point baskets and scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half for UTSA. He said he was inspired by the presence of his parents, who attended on Senior Day. – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA women stoke conference title hopes with a 57-55 road victory at Rice

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Limited to only one point in the last five minutes and 48 seconds, the first-place UTSA Roadrunners women held on until the end of a dramatic finish, stoking their American Athletic Conference championship hopes with a 57-55 road victory Saturday over the Rice Owls.

Karen Aston. UTSA beat North Texas 54-52 in American Athletic Conference women's basketball on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025, at the Convocation Center. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA coach Karen Aston traced her team’s struggle to score at the end against Rice to emotions associated with being in the thick of a race for a conference title. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Rice’s Dominique Ennis misfired on an open-look, three-point attempt at the buzzer, which sent UTSA players into celebration on the court with their sixth straight win and their 23rd overall, which ties for second most in a season in the program’s 44-year history.

By hanging on, UTSA (23-3, 14-1) also maintained a one-game lead on the South Florida Bulls (20-8, 13-2) in the AAC’s regular-season title race. South Florida played at home in Tampa and won its ninth straight by beating Memphis, 80-70. Sammie Puisis led the Bulls with 34 points.

The Roadrunners have three games remaining, including a road game Tuesday in New Orleans against the Tulane Green Wave, before the start of the AAC tournament. After beating Rice, the Roadrunners moved into a tie with the 2007-08 UTSA team with 23 wins.

If they can beat the Green Wave, they would tie the 2008-09 team for the school record of 24. Both of those squads, coached by the late Rae Rippetoe-Blair and led by point guard Monica Gibbs, won Southland Conference postseason titles and played in the NCAA tournament.

After the Rice game, UTSA coach Karen Aston put on the headset at press row and talked to radio voice Neal Raphael. She sounded relieved. “It’s hard to win on the road, that’s the first thing I’ll say,” Aston said.

With Jordyn Jenkins hitting five of her first six shots, the Roadrunners started fast, storming to a 22-6 lead near the end of the first quarter.

But as the game went on, Rice defended Jenkins better, and both Jenkins and Idara Udo played their way into foul trouble. To make matters more troubling, Ennis started to play well, hitting shots from all angles and distances.

In the last six minutes, the Owls kept grinding away and nearly knocked off off the conference leaders. With 5:48 remaining, Roadrunners guard Nina De Leon Negron hit a three-point basket. The shot went down and gave UTSA a 56-49 lead.

From there, by unofficial count, UTSA missed five field goal attempts and committed two turnovers. The Owls, meanwhile, called on Victoria Flores for a layup. Ennis followed with a three with 2:45 remaining, pulling Rice to within 56-53.

Going into the last half minute, the Owls looked to be the aggressor. With Ennis floating on the perimeter, a danger to score from anywhere, the ball went inside to forward Sussy Ngulefac, who hit from close range. UTSA’s lead was down to one.

On the ensuing inbounds with 15 seconds left, De Leon Negron caught the pass but was tied up, with the possession going to Rice. Ennis, however, misfired from about 13 feet with Maya Linton and Udo coming out to contest.

The defensive stop gave UTSA a last chance with the ball, and the Roadrunners eked one point out of it on a De Leon Negron free throw. She hit it with a second left for the 57-55 lead.

After Rice rebounded De Leon Negron’s next free throw, a miss, the home team had a chance, with the Owls getting to advance the ball to its own end of the court. On an inbounds play, Ennis popped open and had a look at the basket, but she missed off the rim.

“It was Senior Day for these guys (the Owls) and they were jockeying for position as are we, and I thought that Rice played their hearts out. I thought we did, too,” Aston said in an interview on The Bull, on the postgame radio show. “We just … you know, maybe we played not to lose there toward the end of the game.”

Aston had more to say:

“We made a lot of mistakes — defensively, offensively — just uncharacteristic (of our team). Just not being able to listen (was a factor). It was loud in here. We just couldn’t process some of the things we were talking about in timeouts.

“(It was) emotional.

“That’s just where this team is right now,” the coach said. “They want to win so bad that they’re having trouble just relaxing. You know, that’s what happens when you’ve never won anything before, and you’re trying really hard to do it. You’re just trying to find ways to get through it, and we did that.”

UTSA is 16-1 in its last 17 games, with the only loss coming on Jan. 29 at South Florida, 75-63. Jenkins sat out against South Florida with an injury, the only game she hasn’t played this season.

Records

UTSA 23-3, 14-1
Rice 13-14, 6-9

Coming up

UTSA at Tulane (16-10, 9-6), Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
FAU at UTSA, Saturday, March 1, noon
UTSA at East Carolina, Tuesday, March 4, 5 p.m.

AAC leaders

UTSA 14-1, 23-3
South Florida 13-2, 20-8
North Texas 12-3, 20-7

Notable

UTSA — The Roadrunners are trying to win their first regular-season title since Rae Rippetoe-Blair’s 2008-09 team tied UT Arlington for the Southland Conference crown at 14-2. UTSA went on to win the SLC postseason championship and lost to No. 2-seed Baylor in the NCAA first round, finishing 24-9.

Coach Karen Aston, in her 17th year as an NCAA Division I head coach, has won 346 games. She has a winning percentage of almost 63 percent and has led her teams to seven NCAA tournaments, including four trips to the Sweet 16 and one to the Elite Eight. But she is still looking for her first regular-season title.

Forward Jordyn Jenkins led UTSA with 19 points on six of 13 shooting. Idara Udo, who has had three double doubles recently, finished with eight points and four rebounds in 28 minutes. Both Jenkins and Udo were limited with four fouls. Forward Cheyenne Rowe came off the bench for 10 points on four of seven. Nina De Leon Negron had four points, five rebounds and seven assists. She also contributed four steals.

Rice — Dominique Ennis had 21 points, five rebounds and four assists. She went nine of 23 from the field and made three three-point shots. Forward Sussy Ngulefac, who scored 16 against the Roadrunners in San Antonio in January, didn’t touch the ball much in the first half and was held to 11. Malia Fisher, Rice’s other major scoring threat, scored only four. Hailey Adams, a Rice sophomore from San Antonio’s Clark High School, had seven points and 12 rebounds.

First half

UTSA surged behind the hot shooting of forward Jordyn Jenkins into a 16-point lead in the first quarter, only to see the Rice Owls rally with a focused defensive effort. In the end, the Roadrunners took a 36-27 lead into intermission.

Both teams entered the game in Houston at Tudor Fieldhouse with different motivations. The Roadrunners were looking to protect a one-game lead in the American Athletic Conference, while the Owls wanted to win on Senior Day.

The Owls entered the game with a 10-3 record at home this season.

Tulane update

The Green Wave (16-10 on the season and to 9-6 in the AAC) celebrated Senior Night on Saturday with a 68-64 home victory over Wichita State.

Sherese Pittman recorded her sixth double-double with 17 points and 16 rebounds and Victoria Keenan added 16 on four 3-pointers. Kyren Whittington contributed 12 points.

Amira Mabry, a Tulane junior from San Antonio area Converse Judson High School, was the team’s top rebounder with 11. Freshman Kendall Sneed posted six assists and four steals.

First-place UTSA women hit ‘the final stretch’ in American Athletic Conference title race

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

In long-distance races in track and field, an official rings a bell with one lap to go as runners churn for the finish.

The leader of the pack has an advantage, but everyone with a competitive heart believes they can still win.

Jordyn Jenkins. UTSA beat East Carolina 60-46 at the Convocation Center on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, in American Athletic Conference women's basketball. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Jordyn Jenkins leads the AAC in scoring at 18.5 points per game. She also ranks fourth in field goal percentage at 47.2. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Well, the bell is ringing, so to speak, for the UTSA women’s basketball team and everyone chasing them in the race for the American Athletic Conference regular-season title.

The first-place Roadrunners (22-3 overall, 13-1 AAC) lead in the standings by one game over the South Florida Bulls and by two over the North Texas Mean Green with four to play.

Of UTSA’s last remaining games, three are on the road, including one this afternoon in Houston against the Rice Owls.

Even though a regular-season title doesn’t guarantee a coveted NCAA berth, UTSA forward Idara Udo says it’s “really important” for the Roadrunners to win it.

“That was one of our goals for the season,” she said. “So I think that with four games left, it’s kind of like the final stretch, like, the last lap in the race.”

Both South Florida (19-8, 12-2) and North Texas (19-7, 11-3) have two at home and two on the road remaining.

South Florida has won eight in a row leading into today’s home game against Memphis, while North Texas has won three straight going into a road test today at East Carolina.

UTSA coach Karen Aston was asked during her weekly session with the media on Monday how she liked her team’s chances to finish first.

Hailey Adams. UTSA women's basketball beat Rice 67-58 in American Athletic Conference action at the Convocation Center on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Hailey Adams, a Rice sophomore from San Antonio Clark High School wearing No. 22, averages 7.0 points and 7.2 rebounds for the Owls. – File photo by Joe Alexander

“Well, we control our own destiny at this point, as far as the fact that we are one game up right now,” Aston said. “But there’s just a lot of basketball to play. Take the road games that are never easy. So we just have to take the standard approach that we’ve made since Day 1, which is one game at a time.

“Rice is the next opponent and there’s really not much to worry about other than Rice right now.”

The Roadrunners had a tough time with the Owls before beating them 67-58 in San Antonio on Jan. 8. Rice led by nine in the second quarter and by six with 7:54 remaining, only to see UTSA explode past them in the final minutes.

Records

UTSA 22-3, 13-1
Rice 13-13, 6-8

Coming up

UTSA at Rice, Saturday, 4 p.m.
UTSA at Tulane, Tuesday, 6:30 p.m.
FAU at UTSA, Saturday, March 1, noon
UTSA at East Carolina, Tuesday, March 4, 5 p.m.