Baseball

Roadrunners punch ticket to SLC Tournament with 4-0 blanking at McNeese State

 

May 20, 2005
Contact: Matt Schabert (210) 458-4930

Roadrunners punch ticket to SLC Tournament with 4-0 blanking at McNeese State

Box Score

LAKE CHARLES, La. - Needing to win just one game in its final Southland Conference series to qualify for next week's tournament, the University of Texas at San Antonio baseball team took care of business Friday night with a 4-0 shutout at McNeese State at the Cowboy Diamond.

The Roadrunners (23-31/14-12 SLC) got a complete-game, nine strikeout performance from sophomore Steven Vasquez as they clinched a spot in the tournament for the second consecutive year. McNeese State (22-31/11-15 SLC) needed to sweep the Roadrunners to make it into the field and thus will see its season end tomorrow in the finale of the three-game series at 1 p.m.

With Southeastern Louisiana's come-from-behind win over Louisiana-Monroe Friday, the field of six is set with final seeding to be determined with the results of tomorrow's games. Northwestern State, the tournament host, has already locked up the top seed, while Texas State, Lamar, Texas-Arlington, Southeastern Louisiana, and the Roadrunners will complete the field.

UTSA could claim as high as the number three seed with a win tomorrow and a Texas State loss at Lamar. The Roadrunners will be either the third, fourth or fifth seed as SLU has sealed the sixth seed.

In Friday's win, Vasquez threw 142 pitches and gave up seven hits but was never really in trouble all night. He struck out a UTSA season-high nine Cowboys. In the seventh inning, he escaped a bases-loaded, one-out situation by getting Charlie Kingery to whiff on a high fastball. Vasquez recorded his first career complete game and upped his season record to 3-1.

McNeese State used four pitchers, with starter Cameron Chandler taking the loss to fall to 3-9. Chandler lasted into the third inning, but UTSA chased him in that frame with three runs to push ahead 4-0. Danny Davis made his league-high 28th appearance and tossed the final 3.2 innings with four strikeouts. The Roadrunners left a season-high 15 men on base.

The Roadrunners banged out 12 hits on the night. Junior J.R. Voyles went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, while junior Ryan Crew and senior Stephen Holdren both went 2-for-3. Crew reached base all five times. Sophomore Ryan Saltzgaber went 2-for-5. Senior Chris Lewis didn't record a hit but had a pair of sacrifice flies and recorded his team-best 45th and 46th RBIs.

Tyler Stutes led the Cowboys with a 3-for-4 night, while Chris Fontenot went 2-for-3 as McNeese left 10 men on base.

The Roadrunners jumped on Chandler in the first inning with a run. Voyles singled and moved to second on Crew's single. Holdren then singled to load the bases for Lewis. He fouled out down the field line to score Voyles.

UTSA added the final three runs in the game in the third inning as Holdren singled in Voyles for the first run and Lewis hit his second sacrifice to score Crew, who had reached on a Cowboy fielding error. Michael McKennon doubled and moved to third on the relay throw. He the scored on a wild pitch.

The Roadrunners and Cowboys conclude the series tomorrow at 1 p.m. The conference tournament begins on Wednesday, May 25 with the championship scheduled for May 28 at Brown-Stroud Field in Natchitoches, La.


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