| Freshman Ryan Proudfoot struck out a career-high 11 on Sunday afternoon. |
SAN ANTONIO – On the strength of freshman Ryan Proudfoot’s career-high 11 strikeouts and a season-high 17 hits on offense, UTSA completed its second three-game sweep in as many weekends with a commanding 14-1 victory against Central Arkansas on Sunday at Roadrunner Field. The game was called after the top of the seventh due to the Southland Conference’s run rule.
The Roadrunners won for the seventh time in their last eight games and improved to 13-11 and a perfect 6-0 in league play. UTSA is off to its best SLC start in school history and the Roadrunners swept consecutive league series for the first time in school annals.
Proudfoot (2-1) won for the second time this week after allowing just one run on four hits and three walks in six innings. The right-hander, who tossed five hitless innings on Tuesday against Lamar, struck out the side twice and registered a pair of punchouts in two other frames. His 11 strikeouts were a season high by a UTSA pitcher and the most since Steven Vasquez fanned 11 on March 24, 2006, against Northwestern State.
UTSA jumped out of the gates with four runs on five hits in the first off Central Arkansas starter Jonathan Ashworth. The Roadrunners plated another three the next frame and never looked back.
After UTSA put up a five-spot in the fourth to extend the lead to 12-0, the Bears (10-13, 1-5 SLC) got on the board when Matt Warren launched a two-out homer in the fifth, his third long ball of the weekend. The Roadrunners scored two more times the next inning to complete the rout.
A day after tying his career high with four hits, sophomore Michael Rockett was 3-for-4 with his first home run of the year and he tied his career high with four RBIs. Senior Ryan Saltzgaber also was 3-for-4 and he drove in a pair of runners and scored two times. Senior Mitch Ponza added his first homer of the year, a two-run shot to center in the fourth.
The top six hitters in the UTSA lineup each had at least two hits and they combined to go 14-for-24 with seven extra-base hits. The Roadrunners scored 38 runs in the three games, hit .425 (48 hits) and rapped out 15 doubles, five triples and eight home runs.
Ashworth (1-2) allowed 10 runs on 11 hits in his 3.1 innings of work.
UTSA is back in action on Tuesday night when it travels to Edinburg to play Texas-Pan American (11-20). First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m. at Edinburg Stadium.