· Game notes (.pdf)
SAN ANTONIO — Coming off an impressive 10-2 win over Southland Conference rival Texas-Arlington on Sunday, UTSA steps out of league play to face St. John’s in the first of two home non-conference games this week. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. on Tuesday, March 6.
UTSA Roadrunners (9-12) vs. St. John’s Red Storm (2-8)
Tuesday, March 6 • 3 p.m.
Roadrunner Field (300) • San Antonio, Texas
Audio: goUTSA.com (Rowdy Zone subscription)
Live Stats: goUTSA.com
Series Record: First meeting
Series History: UTSA and St. John’s have never met on the softball field. The Roadrunners have faced one other current Big East school in their history, falling 6-2 to Connecticut on March 21, 2003 at the New Mexico State Tournament in Las Cruces, N.M.
Scouting The Red Storm: St. John’s fell to 2-8 with a 3-2 loss to Sam Houston on Sunday at the Texas Invitational in Austin. Junior second baseman Bionka King leads the offense with a .278 batting average, while senior shortstop Loren Anguiano is hitting .259 with two doubles, two home runs and six runs batted in. Senior Kim Lerch (1-4, 5.34 ERA) and junior Lisa Geer (1-4, 6.82 ERA), both right-handers, make up the pitching staff. Head coach Amy Kvilhaug is 129-122 in her fifth season.
Base Hits
• UTSA has won five of its last seven games
• UTSA has won 10 of its past 11 home contests and is 48-7 (.873) at home since 2004
• The Roadrunners have led the NCAA in home runs per game in each of the past four seasons, but only have 11 in 21 games (0.52 per game) this season
• Senior Jessica Rogers needs one home run to break the Southland Conference career home runs record of 55 she currently shares with former Roadrunner Christy Brownlee
• With five total bases, Rogers can eclipse the SLC career record of 428
• Senior Aimee Murray can move into fifth place on UTSA’s career home runs chart with her next long ball as she currently has 37
Last Outing: UTSA drilled UTA, 10-2, on Sunday in the rubber game of a three-game conference series at Roadrunner Field. Senior Jessica Rogers was 4-for-4 with a home run, an SLC career record-tying solo blast, while sophomore Leanne Risberg had two hits, including a first-inning grand slam. Junior Amanda Nikolenko was solid in the circle, allowing one earned run on seven hits in running her record to 6-8 on the season.
No Place Like Home: UTSA has turned Roadrunner Field into a true homefield advantage over the past three seasons. Dating back to 2004, the Roadrunners are 48-7 (.873) at home, including a 16-1 mark in 2005. UTSA has won 10 of its past 11 home games, the only loss a 1-0 setback to UTA last Saturday.
Tough Slate: UTSA has played a tough schedule in 2007, with two games against teams ranked in the top five of last week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Polls. The Roadrunners faced No. 3/5 Alabama in the CenturyTel Classic and No. 5/4 Texas A&M at the Aggie Classic. UTSA will face three more ranked teams (No. 6/7 LSU, No. 10 Texas and No. 16 Baylor) that made the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
Rogers Rewriting SLC Record Book: Senior Jessica Rogers hit her fourth home run of the season in the UTA win on Sunday, giving her 55 career round-trippers. That ties her with former Roadrunner Christy Brownlee for the SLC career home run record. Rogers, who set the conference single-season home run and RBI records with 23 and 64 in 2005, took down the league’s career RBI record of 147 with five in the Rutgers win on Feb. 16 and now has 158. The 2005 SLC Player of the Year needs five total bases to break the SLC mark of 428 set by Lori Tande (Louisiana-Monroe) from 1999-2002.
Making History: Junior right-hander Amanda Nikolenko tossed the eighth no-hitter in school history in a 10-0 victory over Rutgers on Feb. 16 at the Aggie Classic. The Ashland, Mo., native struck out five and allowed just two walks and a hit batter in becoming the fifth different Roadrunner to hold a team hitless in 16 seasons of softball.
Going, Going, Gone: UTSA has made a name nationally with the success it has enjoyed hitting the long ball. Dating back to 2003, the Roadrunners have slugged 400 home runs in 241 games, an average of 1.66 per game. UTSA shattered its own NCAA record, hitting 105 round-trippers in 51 contests for a 2.06 average, eclipsing the old 1.87 mark set in 2004 (101/54). The Roadrunners own three of the top six home run seasons in NCAA history — 105 (2006), 103 (2005), 101 (2004) — and set a conference record with 14 home runs in four games at the 2006 SLC Tournament. This season, UTSA is off to a sub-par start with just 11 long balls in the first 21 games, but heated up last week with seven homers in six games.
SLC Supremacy: UTSA is the winningest program in Southland Conference history, owning a 236-147 (.616) all-time record in conference games. Dating back to 2004, the Roadrunners are 67-18 (.788) in league play, including a 22-5 mark last season. UTSA has won three consecutive SLC regular season crowns and is 10-2 in SLC Tournament games over the last three years, winning two-of-three titles (2004, 2006).
A New Era: Lori Cook is in her second year as head coach after guiding the Roadrunners to one of the most successful seasons in school history in 2006. UTSA was 37-14 overall, won its third consecutive SLC regular season title with a 22-5 mark, won the SLC Tournament for the second time in three years and made its second NCAA Tournament appearance.
Up Next: UTSA hosts national power Texas at 6 p.m. Thursday, March 8, in the first-ever night game at Roadrunner Field.
