Baseball

Roadrunners drop 6-1 decision at McNeese State

 

May 19, 2005
Contact: Matt Schabert (210) 458-4930

Roadrunners drop 6-1 decision at McNeese State

Box Score

LAKE CHARLES, La. - The University of Texas at San Antonio baseball team dropped the first game of a three-game series at McNeese State, 6-1, Thursday night at the Cowboy Diamond. The Roadrunners, who need only one win this weekend to clinch a spot in next week's Southland Conference Tournament, fell to 22-31 and 13-12 in the league.

In a match-up of two of the league's premier hurlers, Cowboy junior pitcher Jacob Marceaux shut down the Roadrunners in getting a complete game victory. He struck out nine in improving to 6-5.

UTSA senior southpaw Aaron Rodriguez, a nominee for the league's Pitcher of the Year Award, absorbed his first loss this year in an conference game. He allowed just five runs and recorded five strikeouts as his conference record dipped to 5-1 while his overall mark settled at 7-5.

The Cowboys, in a tie for seventh place and needing to record a sweep in the three-game series to qualify for the postseason tournament, jumped on the Roadrunners with three runs in the first inning before Rodriguez settled down and shut down the hosts until the seventh inning. The Roadrunners notched a run in the fourth inning before the Cowboys tacked on two more in the seventh and their final tally in the eighth off UTSA reliever Noah Tritz.

McNeese scored three times in the first as Taylor Faul drew the first of eight walks by the UTSA pitching pair. Faul came around to score on a Chad Carnahan single. Charlie Kingrey, who also walked, scored next on a passed ball, and Josh Fontenot added the third run on a RBI single by Tyler Dugas.

The Roadrunners sliced the margin to 3-1 in the fourth as junior J.R. Voyles led off with a walk. Voyles scored from first when senior Stephen Holdren drilled a triple to deep center field, his fourth three-bagger and the team's league-best 24th overall.

Cowboy leftfielder Chris Fontenot gave his team two insurance runs in the seventh with a two-RBI single.

The Roadrunners managed five hits on the night. Junior Ryan Crew, Holdren, sophomores Michael McKennon and Ryan Saltzgaber, and junior Lee Todesco provided a hit apiece. Fontenot went 3-for-4 to pace the Cowboys.

The teams will battle again tomorrow at the Cowboy Diamond. First pitch, which was originally scheduled for an afternoon 3 p.m. start, has been pushed back to an evening 7 p.m. start.


 

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