Ryan Beaird, a UTSA junior from San Antonio’s Reagan High School, pitched three scoreless innings in relief and struck out five to earn the victory. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Ryan Ward, Ryan Beaird, Braylon Owens and Ruger Riojas combined for 12 strikeouts without a walk Tuesday night as UTSA beat the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders 4-2 at Roadrunner Field.

Coming off a two-to-one series victory at Memphis in the American Athletic Conference last weekend, UTSA scored three unearned runs in the third inning and made it stand up, improving to 12-4 over its last 16 games. UTSA is 3-1 on Tuesday nights during that stretch.

The Roadrunners didn’t play great in all phases of the game. They were thrown out on the bases three times.

Ryan Ward, a UTSA senior from San Antonio-area Clemens High School, started and pitched three scoreless innings. Ward allowed only one hit. – Photo by Joe Alexander

But with Ward, Beaird, Owens and Riojas throwing strikes all night, they were able to win against their South Texas rivals after losing two of three to the Islanders in Corpus Christi last month.

Beaird (1-0) earned the victory with three shutout innings. He allowed four hits and struck out five. After Owens got in trouble in the eighth, Riojas entered with a runner at second and one out. He promptly fanned two batters to end the threat.

With two outs in the top of the ninth, the Islanders got a runner aboard on an infield error, bringing leading hitter Issac Webb to the plate as the potential tying run. Webb, in the end, flied to center, giving UTSA the victory and Riojas his sixth save of the season.

Records

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 17-24
UTSA 22-15

Coming up

American Athletic Conference series
Friday: UAB at UTSA, 6 p.m.
Saturday: UAB at UTSA, 2 p.m.
Sunday: UAB at UTSA, noon

Notable

Cole Modgling, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s fifth-year senior from Medina Valley High School, had three hits in his first three at bats and finished three for four. The Islanders used five pitchers. Junior righthander Joshua Flaugher (0-2) was tagged with the loss. He yielded three hits and three runs, all of them unearned after shortstop Mason Person’s fielding error in the third inning.

UTSA shortstop Matt King gloves an infield chopper against A&M-Corpus Christi. On offense, he produced two hits and a run scored for the Roadrunners. – Photo by Joe Alexander