| March 8, 2006
Contact: Carlos Valdez III. (210) 458-4930 UTSA set to host Baseball Express Collegiate Classic March 10-13 at Wolff Stadium Baseball Express Collegiate Classic
Game Notes | Live Stats | Live Audio (Sunday and Monday only)
SAN ANTONIO - The UTSA baseball team hosts the Baseball Express Collegiate Classic this Friday-Monday, March 10-13, at Wolff Stadium. The Roadrunners welcome in a top-flight field that includes Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana-Lafayette, Notre Dame and Texas A&M. The tourney kicks off at 11 a.m. Friday with Louisiana-Lafayette taking on Illinois. UTSA plays Iowa on Friday at 3 p.m., Illinois on Saturday at 7 p.m., Texas A&M on Sunday at 3 p.m. and Louisiana-Lafayette on Monday at 3 p.m. Baseball Express Collegiate Classic
Friday, March 10-Monday, March 13
Wolff Stadium • San Antonio, Texas Friday, March 10
UTSA Roadrunners (8-7) vs. Iowa Hawkeyes (5-1) - 3 p.m.
Saturday, March 11
Illinois Fighting Illini (3-3) vs. UTSA Roadrunners - 7 p.m.
Sunday, March 12
UTSA Roadrunners vs. Texas A&M Aggies (13-3) - 3 p.m.
Monday, March 13
Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns (6-3) vs. UTSA Roadrunners - 3 p.m. Last Game:
UTSA rallied from a 5-0 deficit for a 10-9 victory over Texas-Pan American in 10 innings Tuesday afternoon at Roadrunner Field. The Broncs jumped on the Roadrunners with a five-run first, but UTSA took an 8-7 lead in the bottom of the sixth and added a run in the seventh for a 9-7 advantage. UTPA tied it with two in the top of the ninth, but Ryan Saltzgaber’s single up the middle in the bottom of the 10th plated Marshal Davis with the winning run.
On A Roll:
The Roadrunners have won four straight games thanks to the Tuesday victory against UTPA and a sweep at Dallas Baptist. UTSA is scoring 8.3 runs per game during the stretch. The pitching staff was impressive in the weekend sweep of DBU, holding the Patriots to just six runs in the three games, including a 7-0 blanking on Friday.
Tough Field:
The Baseball Express Collegiate Classic is shaping into one of the top fields for any college baseball tournament this season. Four of the six teams were in the NCAA Tournament last season, including UTSA at the Waco Regional. This season, Texas A&M (13-3) is ranked in all three major polls, while four of the six teams boast a winning record.
Team Capsules Illinois enters the tournament after winning the Big Ten Conference in 2005 with a 20-12 record. Senior pitcher Brian Blomquist returns as the ace of the Fighting Illini, after posting a 3.53 earned run average in 2005. Dan Harltleb is in his first year as head coach.
Iowa finished third in the Big Ten in 2005, just a game out of first with a 19-13 record in conference play. Senior relief pitcher Tim Gudex was named preseason Big Ten Pitcher of the Year by Collegiate Baseball. The Hawkeyes also return second team all-Big Ten outfielder Nate Price and third team all-Big Ten infielder Jason White.
Louisiana-Lafayette won the Sun Belt Conference and earned an automatic bid to the NCAA Regionals in 2005. Last season, the Ragin Cajuns went 48-19 overall and 16-8 in conference play. Louisiana-Lafayette is predicted to finish second in Sun Belt Conference in 2006. Josh Landry was selected as a preseason all-Sun Belt Conference team member.
Notre Dame, winners of the last four consecutive Big East Tournament titles, enters the tournament ranked No. 22 in preseason polls by Collegiate Baseball and College Baseball Writers, and has been picked to win the Big East again. Former Reagan High School standout Jeff Manship returns the Alamo City. Junior pitcher Jeff Samardzija, an All-American Candidate, was named to the 2006 Preseason all-Big East first team by Baseball America, was a football unanimous first team all-American at wide receiver for the Fighting Irish football team in 2005 and was a freshman all-American by Collegiate Baseball magazine in 2004. Manship and Samardzija have been selected to Baseball America’s top 100 prospects for the 2006 MLB draft.
Texas A&M posted a 30-25-1 record in 2005. The Aggies finished ninth in the Big 12 with a 9-18 record. This is the Aggies’ first-year under head coach Rob Childress. The Aggies welcome back 14 letterwinners including seven pitchers, headlined by junior left-hander Jason Meyer, who finished with a 5-5 record and a 3.04 ERA in 2005. Senior infielder Ryan Hill played high school baseball at Reagan High School. Hill played in 56 games, batted .317 and collected 66 hits for Texas A&M in 2005.
UTSA, the tournament host, won the 2005 Southland Conference (SLC) tournament and earned the program’s second NCAA Regional berth. Leading the way for the Roadrunners will be their pitching staff led by junior Steven Vasquez. Vasquez posted a 4-2 record and a team-best 4.05 earned run average last year. Also returning is senior infielder J.R. Voyles. Voyles led the Roadrunners with a .308 batting average in 2005. Head coach Sherman Corbett, UTSA’s winningest coach with more than 140 career victories, welcomes back 17 letterwinners, including seven pitchers.
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