· Game notes (.pdf)
FIRST PITCH: Winners of four of the last five games, UTSA (13-13) faces No. 9 LSU (24-4) on Tuesday, March 13, in Baton Rouge, La. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Tiger Park.
UTSA Roadrunners (13-13) at No. 9 LSU Tigers (24-4)
Tuesday, March 13 • 6 p.m.
Tiger Park (1,000) • Baton Rouge, La.
Live Stats: lsusports.net
Live Audio: goUTSA.com (Rowdy Zone subscription)
Series Record: LSU leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: LSU 10, UTSA 0 (Feb. 20, 2004)
SERIES HISTORY: LSU leads the all-time series with UTSA, 2-0. The Tigers defeated UTSA, 10-0, in the last meeting on Feb. 20, 2004, in Baton Rouge and won the only other meeting, 3-2, in 11 innings on March 12, 2000, in Oklahoma City, Okla.
BASE HITS
• UTSA has won four of its past five and eight of its last 10 games
• The Roadrunners have won five consecutive road games
• UTSA has led the NCAA in home runs per game in each of the past four seasons, and has 18 in 26 games (0.69 per game) this season
• Senior Aimee Murray surpassed Amanda Horton for fourth place on UTSA’s career home runs chart with 40th in the 11-2 win at Southeastern Louisiana on Sunday
SCOUTING THE TIGERS: LSU is 24-4 on the season after winning two-of-three from Mississippi last weekend. The Tigers are ranked No. 9 in last week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 and No. 10 in the USA Today/NFCA Top 25. Freshman Jazz Jackson leads the offense with a .453 batting average, two doubles and 10 stolen bases, while Junior Killian Roessner is hitting .448 with nine doubles and 22 runs batted in. Senior Leslie Klein is batting .430 with 10 two-baggers, three triples, three home runs and 29 RBIs. Sophomore right-hander Dani Hofer leads a strong pitching staff with a 10-1 record, 1.18 earned run average and 113 strikeouts in 71.0 innings pitched. Head coach Yvette Girouard is 332-93 in her seventh season at the helm.
LAST OUTING: Senior Jessica Rogers went 3-for-3 with four RBIs to lead UTSA to an 11-2 rout of Southeastern Louisiana on Sunday in Hammond, La. The win completed a three-game sweep of the Lions and moved the Roadrunners to 7-2 in Southland Conference play. It also marked the 13th consecutive victory in the series. Senior Aimee Murray hit a two-run home run, her fifth of the season.
TOUGH SLATE: UTSA has played a tough schedule in 2007, with three games against teams ranked in the top 10 of this week’s ESPN.com/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Polls. The Roadrunners faced No. 3/4 Alabama in the CenturyTel Classic, No. 4 Texas A&M at the Aggie Classic and No. 8 Texas on March 8. UTSA will face three more ranked teams (No. 9/10 LSU, No. 8 Texas and No. 14/16 Baylor) that made the 2006 NCAA Tournament.
ROGERS REWRITING SLC RECORD BOOK: Senior Jessica Rogers broke the SLC career home runs record with her 56th in the 4-1 loss to No. 8 Texas on March 8, moving out of a tie atop the league list with former Roadrunner Christy Brownlee. She now has six this season and 57 career homers. The 2005 SLC Player of the Year also eclipsed the SLC career total bases mark of 428 set by Lori Tande (Louisiana-Monroe) from 1999-2002 with four in the Texas game and now has 437 for her career. 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 164.
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 407 home runs in 246 games, an average of 1.65 per game. Last season, UTSA shattered its own NCAA record, hitting 105 round-trippers in 51 contests for a 2.06 average, eclipsing the 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 has just 18 long balls in the first 26 games (0.69), but has heated up with 14 homers in the past 10 games.
SLC SUPREMACY: UTSA is the winningest program in Southland Conference history, owning a 239-147 (.619) all-time record in conference games. Dating back to 2004, the Roadrunners are 70-18 (.795) 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. Cook’s career record is 50-27 (.649).
UP NEXT: UTSA returns home to host Texas Tech in a doubleheader at 3 p.m. Friday, March 16.
