Baseball

Lewis' three-run homer propels UTSA past Lamar, 7-4

 

May 13, 2005
Contact: Matt Schabert (210) 458-4930

Lewis' three-run homer propels UTSA past Lamar, 7-4

Box Score

SAN ANTONIO - Senior catcher Chris Lewis hit a three-run homer to break open a tie game in the sixth inning, and senior pitcher Aaron Rodriguez improved to 5-0 in Southland Conference games as the host University of Texas at San Antonio baseball team upended the visiting Lamar Cardinals, 7-4, Friday in the opening game of a three-game series at Roadrunner Field.

UTSA improved to 22-28 and 13-9 in the Southland Conference, moving a game ahead of Lamar to fourth place in the league standings. The Cardinals fell to 12-10 in the SLC and 31-20 overall.

In the sixth, with junior Ryan Crew and senior Stephen Holdren on base with no outs, Lewis drilled the first pitch he saw from Cardinal reliever Scott Vander Weg over the left field wall for his team-leading ninth dinger of the year. Lewis went 1-for-4 on the day, but collected four RBIs for the second consecutive game after belting a grand slam in the Roadrunners' last action on May 3 at Baylor. With his 25th career round-tripper, Lewis moved to within one home run of fourth place all-time at UTSA.

Rodriguez, who made his final career start at Roadrunner Field, tossed 7.1 innings and moved to 7-4 overall and 5-0 in the conference, winning for the fifth time in six games on Friday. He allowed 13 hits but was efficient as he fanned three and forced 13 Cardinal base runners to be stranded. Junior Noah Tritz entered in the eighth and closed the game with two strikeouts for his first career save.

Vander Weg pitched only one complete inning and allowed three earned runs to absorb the loss and fall to 3-4.

The Roadrunners generated 12 hits on the afternoon as J.R. Voyles, Holdren, Lee Todesco and Phillip Allen all collected two apiece. Voyles and Holdren scored two runs each as well. Matt Lambeth, Colt Crawford and Jo Jo Haney had three hits each for the Cardinals, who produced 15 safeties.

The Roadrunners wasted little time in taking a lead, notching a run in the first inning on a Lewis sacrifice fly, scoring leadoff hitter Sean Danielson.

Lamar grabbed a 2-1 lead in the third, but the Roadrunners responded with two in the bottom of the inning. Voyles opened the inning with a single and moved to second after Holdren walked. The pair then advanced a base on a wild pitch. Sophomore Michael McKennon then picked up two RBIs as he knocked a 1-2 pitch into right field to score Voyles and Holdren.

The Cardinals tied the game at three in the fifth on an RBI single by Adrian Cantu before Lewis provided the heroics in the sixth.

The Roadrunners added an insurance run in the seventh as Holdren collected an RBi with a single up the middle to score Voyles, who reached on a double.

The Cardinals trimmed the margin to 7-4 in the eighth and had the bases loaded in the ninth before Tritz slammed the door with two strikeouts to end the threat.

-UTSA-