By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The first-place UTSA Roadrunners on Saturday moved closer to their second straight regular-season baseball title in the American Conference.
About an hour after they won 9-2 on the road against the Memphis Tigers, the Roadrunners’ lead in the American standings expanded to three games following the Rice Owls’ 5-3 victory over the East Carolina Pirates.
With a 16-7 record in the American, UTSA now leads three teams tied for second — Rice, East Carolina and UAB — all at 13-10. All have four games to play.
UAB kept pace with the leaders earlier in the day when the Blazers downed the Charlotte 49ers, 11-2.
In Memphis, UTSA scored six runs with two outs to back the pitching of senior Conor Myles. Myles (9-1) worked six innings, allowing two runs on eight hits, in the game played in Memphis at FedEx Park.
The lefty from Australia out-dueled Memphis lefty David Case (5-7) and earned a win that allowed the Roadrunners to rebound from a frustrating loss.
After leaving 14 runners on base and losing 6-4 to Memphis on Friday, UTSA needed a bounce-back effort to keep moving in the direction of a second straight title.
The Roadrunners also needed the win to avoid losing a series in conference for the first time since May of 2024.
UTSA’s offense came through with 13 hits, including two each by Drew Detlefsen, Caden Miller and Cade Sadler.
Detlefsen, who leads the conference in RBIs, went two for six and drove in two.
Josh Arquette, starting at third base as part of a ploy to give the Roadrunners more right-side hitting against a left-handed starter, also had a hit and two RBIs.
A day after hitting only three-for-21 with runners on base, the Roadrunners hit eight for 23 with runners on and eight for 16 with two outs.
Records
UTSA 34-16, 16-7
Memphis 20-29, 11-12
Coming up
UTSA at Memphis, Sunday, 11 a.m.
x-Texas State at UTSA, Tuesday, 6 p.m.
UAB at UTSA, Thursday, 6 p.m.
UAB at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
UAB at UTSA, Saturday, 11 a.m.
x-non conference; all others American conference games
Notable
Sunday’s game between the UTSA Roadrunners and the Memphis Tigers has been moved up to an 11 a.m. central time start.
Rice making noise
A little more than a week ago, the Roadrunners sat in a tie for first in the American standings with the East Carolina Pirates and the UAB Blazers.
With outside help from the in-state rival Rice Owls, the Roadrunners have since taken a commanding three-game lead, starting by taking care of their own business and sweeping three from the Wichita State Shockers at home and then splitting its first two on the road at Memphis.
In the same span, East Carolina dropped two of three on the road at Memphis, before losing twice at home to Rice in the past few days. The UAB Blazers, in turn, lost three in Houston at Rice last weekend before splitting its first two at home against Charlotte.
Earlier this season, the Roadrunners won series against both the Pirates and the Owls. They will close the regular season with three at home against the Blazers.