· Box score
SAN ANTONIO — On the strength of five home runs, including a grand slam by senior Jessica Rogers, UTSA rallied from a 5-0 deficit for a 14-6 victory over Central Arkansas on Sunday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
With the win, the Roadrunners (16-16, 10-2) completed a three-game Southland Conference sweep of the Sugar Bears and extended their league winning streak to seven games. UCA fell to 8-19 and 0-9.
Rogers broke a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the sixth inning with a massive blast to right center field, as UTSA scored 11 runs in the inning to end the game via the eight-run mercy rule. It was one of three home runs in the frame and was her eighth of the season. Rogers now has an SLC career-best 59 homers.
Senior Catherine Garza slugged two home runs and drove in four runs to give her three round-trippers for the weekend and five for the season, while sophomore Leanne Risberg and freshman Krista Sitka also went yard.
The Roadrunners pounded out 12 hits off three UCA pitchers and scored 31 runs on 36 hits, including 11 home runs, in the series. Junior Lindsay Perry was 2-for-4 with a double and two runs batted in, while Rogers, Risberg and Garza all collected two hits apiece.
UCA jumped on the Roadrunners with a pair of two-run homers in the first two innings. Amy Sperle reached on an error to start the first and came home on Brittany Bearden’s third long ball of the season. Catherine Jones led off the second with a double and scored on Mindy Chancey’s blast to right center.
A solo home run off the top of the fence in left center by Keatha Tollett pushed the UCA lead to 5-0 in the top of the fourth.
Sitka put UTSA on the board with a two-run shot off the top of the scoreboard in left center, scoring senior Aimee Murray, who reached on a single through the left side of the infield. Garza made it back-to-back with her second blast of the weekend, a solo shot to center field that chased UCA starter Kati Beth Billingsley.
UCA struck again with the long ball in the sixth as Janae Owens went deep to center field to put the Bears up, 6-3.
That set the stage for the 11-run sixth as UTSA put the mercy rule into effect for the second time this weekend. Risberg led off with a home run to center field, Sitka walked and a single by redshirt freshman Kelly Cato moved pinch runner Mercedes Hessel to second. Junior Kim Chavez singled to short left field to load the bases. Perry drew a walk to force in Hessel and junior Kourtney Jones was hit by a pitch to knot the score at 6-6.
After an ejection of UCA head coach Steve Kissel for arguing balls and strikes, Rogers sent the first offering from reliever Lindsey Harris deep over the fence in right center field to clear the bases.
UTSA was not done in the inning as Risberg doubled off the fence in left field and Sitka drew her second walk of the frame to put runners on first and second with one out. Garza drilled her second homer of the game, a mammoth blast that sailed over the hitting facility beyond the left field fence, to push the lead to 13-6.
Cato was hit by the first pitch from new reliever Tiffany Swanson and Chavez reached on an error. Perry then lined a double to the gap in left center to plate Cato with the game-ending run.
Junior Janeille Nickels picked up the win in relief for UTSA, allowing one run on two hits to run her record to 6-5. Harris gave up 10 runs on seven hits to fall to 3-8.
UTSA travels to Austin to face nationally-ranked Texas on Thursday, March 22. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. at McCombs Field.
