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UTSA Baseball leads conference

The Roadrunners return home this weekend to host Western Kentucky as top team in conference standings

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The Roadrunners return home this weekend with a 5-1 record in conference play.
The Roadrunners return home this weekend with a 5-1 record in conference play. (Stephen Whitaker)

UTSA baseball kept its hold of first place in conference play by taking two of three over the Rice Owls this past weekend in Houston. The Roadrunners were at A&M Corpus Christi last night before returning home this weekend to host Western Kentucky. More on this weekend is below but first a look back at the week that was.

Friday's game in Houston went beyond the regulation nine innings after Rice tied the score at 3-3 with a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. UTSA had led 2-0 after Antonio Valdez hit a two-run home run in the top of the first inning that also scored leadoff hitter Shane Sirdashney. Rice tied the score at 2-2 with a two-run home run of their own in the bottom of the first inning.

UTSA retook the lead in the top of the sixth inning when Leyton Barry scored on a wild pitch. Rice was able to tie the score with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. The Roadrunners retook the lead, 4-3, in the top of the 11th after a Tye Odom single allowed James Taussig to score from third. Simon Miller picked up the win after throwing 4.2 innings in relief of starter Luke Malone. Daniel Shaefer picked up a save after getting the last two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning.

Rice was able to even the series up at 1-1--and the conference standings at 4-1--on Saturday afternoon with a 13-8 win over the Roadrunners. It was the first time this season that UTSA lost a game played on a Saturday. The Roadrunners and Owls traded the lead four times before the Owls took the lead for good with five runs in the bottom of the fifth to go up 9-5. UTSA cut the deficit to 9-7 in the top of the sixth but Rice answered with two runs in the seventh and eighth innings.

On Sunday, UTSA was able to reclaim the top spot in the conference standings as well as the series with a 6-5 win. It was another hard fought game between the Roadrunners and Owls. As they had on Friday and Saturday the Roadrunners were first on the board. Sammy Diaz scored on a fielders choice and Shane Sirdashney scored on a bases loaded walk to give UTSA a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning.

Rice took the lead in the bottom of the second inning, 3-2 with a pair of home runs, including a two-run shot. The Owls lead was short lived as the Roadrunners scored twice in the top of the third inning. Diaz brought both runs in on a two-run home run that also scored Valdez.

UTSA added a fifth run in the top of the fifth inning when Valdez smacked a solo home run down the right field foul line. Rice tied the score with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning before UTSA retook the lead in the top of the eighth. Taylor Smith led off the eighth with a single and then scored on a Barry double to put UTSA up 6-5.

Shaefer picked up his second save of the weekend with a scoreless bottom of the ninth. Fischer Kingsbery picked up his first win of the season.

UTSA closed out its five games in eight days tour of Texas on Tuesday night when they traveled to Corpus Christi to take on the A&M Corpus Christi Islanders. UTSA swept a weekend series against A&M Corpus earlier this month. On Tuesday the Islanders got some revenge on the Roadrunners with an 8-2 win.

The Islanders scored a run in the bottom of the first and four runs in the bottom of the third to lead 5-0. UTSA cut the deficit to 5-2 with a run in both the fifth and sixth innings before the Islanders scored three in the bottom of the sixth innings.

UTSA fell to 20-6 overall on the season with the loss at A&M Corpus Christi.

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UTSA returns home to friendly confines of Roadrunner Field

Fresh off their week long road trip the Roadrunners are returning home this weekend to take on a Western Kentucky Hilltoppers team that has gotten off to a rough start in conference play.

In the first two weekends, as UTSA has gotten out to a 5-1 start in conference, the Hilltoppers have lost series on the road at Middle Tennessee and last week hosting Louisiana Tech. WKU arrives in San Antonio on Friday night with a 2-4 record in conference and an 16-10 record overall. The Hilltoppers lost to Number 18 Kentucky, 10-8, in Bowling Green on Tuesday night.

Western Kentucky is 14-7 at home this season and 2-3 on the road. Two of those three losses on the road came in the first conference series at Middle Tennessee two weekends ago. This past weekend the Hilltoppers lost the first two games to Louisiana Tech before avoiding the sweep with a win on Sunday afternoon.

The Hilltoppers have scored 192 runs this season and allowed 150 runs this season. WKU as a team has a .310 batting average. Hilltopper pitching has a .248 batting average against and a staff ERA of 4.82.

UTSA and Western Kentucky have not played each other since an elimination game in the 2021 conference tournament in Ruston, LA. The Hilltoppers won that game 10-9 in 10 innings. UTSA's last win in the series came in the 2019 conference tournament in Biloxi, MS. The Roadrunners beat the Hilltoppers 15-8 in the quarterfinals.

The last time UTSA and WKU played in the regular season was back in April 2019. That series was played at Roadrunner Field and the Hilltoppers won two of the three games in the series.

Conference USA Standings as of 3.29.23
Team Conference Record Overall Record Current Streak Who they play this weekend

UTSA

5-1

20-6

L1

v. WKU

Dallas Baptist

4-2

17-8

W1

at Louisiana Tech

Rice

4-2

13-12

W1

at Florida Atlantic

Florida Atlantic

3-3

16-10

W4

v. Rice

Louisiana Tech

3-3

13-12

W1

v. Dallas Baptist

Charlotte

3-3

11-13

W2

at UAB

Western Kentucky

2-4

16-10

L1

at UTSA

Florida International

2-4

13-13

L2

at Middle Tennessee

Middle Tennessee

2-4

11-13

L4

v. FIU

UAB

2-4

8-16

W2

v. Charlotte

FORUMS: UTSA Boulevard | Roadrunner Way

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