UTSA Roadrunners (3-4) at UTEP Miners (7-4)
Saturday, Feb. 23 ? 4 p.m. (DH) | Sunday, Feb. 24 ? Noon
Helen of Troy Field (607) ? El Paso, Texas
Series Record: UTSA leads, 2-0
Last Meeting: UTSA, 9-3 (Feb. 26, 2005)
SAN ANTONIO ? UTSA (3-4) travels to the Greater El Paso Area for thesecond consecutive week to take on UTEP (7-3) in a three-game seriesthis Saturday-Sunday, Feb. 23-24, at Helen of Troy Field. Game one of aSaturday doubleheader will begin at 4 p.m. Central, followed by asingle game at noon on Sunday.
Base Hits
? UTSA is 2-0 all-time against UTEP, winning both meetings in February 2005, 10-2, in San Antonio and, 9-3, in El Paso
? Freshman Whitney Balch batted .667 last weekend at the Hotel Encanto Invitational in Las Cruces, N.M., and joined freshman Dany? Holmes on the all-tournament team
? Balch leads the team with a .533 batting average and is on a four-game hitting streak
Scouting The Miners: UTEP enters the series at 7-4 on the season after dropping a 7-3 decision at New Mexico State on Wednesday. The Miners went 4-2 at the Louisville Slugger Desert Classic in Las Vegas, Nev., last weekend, including a 1-0 setback at the hands of the Canadian National Team. Senior first baseman Simone Holland leads a potent offense with a .432 batting average, three doubles, three home runs and 12 RBIs, while five other Miners are hitting above .300, including senior Ashley Perez (.385). Senior right-hander Nichole Tunget (2-1, 3.05 ERA) and sophomore righty Stacie Townsend (3-2, 1.35 ERA) form a solid one-two punch in the circle. Co-head coaches James and Kathleen Rodriguez are 85-143 in their fourth season at the helm.
Hotel Encanto Recap: Freshman Whitney Balch batted .667 with two home runs and five RBIs to help lead UTSA to a 2-2 record at the Hotel Encanto Invitational last weekend in Las Cruces, N.M. Balch, who along with freshman Dany? Holmes made the all-tournament team, had a hit in all four games, including a 2-for-3, 3-RBI performance in an 11-3 run-ruling of Illinois-Chicago on Saturday. She had three hits in a 6-1 loss to North Dakota State and a single in the bottom of the seventh of a 5-4 victory over New Mexico State on Sunday that plated the tying run and led to an error that allowed the winning run to come home. She was 2-for-3 in a 6-0 loss to Colorado State in the opening game. Senior right-handers Janeille Nickels and Amanda Nikolenko picked up the wins in the circles against Illinois-Chicago and New Mexico State, respectively.
Preseason Prognostications: UTSA has been picked to finish fourth by the league’s head coaches and sports information directors in the 2008 Southland Conference Preseason Polls. Junior Leanne Risberg and sophomore Rudi Cantu have been selected to the SLC Preseason First and Second Team, respectively, in the outfield.
Tough Slate: UTSA will face a tough schedule in 2008, including five teams that made the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Texas is ranked No. 25 in USA Today/NFCA Top 25 Poll and is receiving votes in the ESPN.com/USA Softball Top 25 Poll. Also on the slate are No. 10/13 Baylor, a Women’s College World Series participant in 2007, No. 16/20 Houston, Missouri, which is No. 21 in the USA Today poll and receiving votes in the ESPN.com poll, and Colorado State, which is receiving votes in both polls. Southeastern Louisiana received three votes for the second straight week in the USA Today poll.
Career Record Watch: Senior right-hander Amanda Nikolenko is on pace to break UTSA career records for wins, starts, complete games, innings pitched and strikeouts. She enters this season with 55 wins (record is 61), 85 starts (93), 57 complete games (72), 580 innings (601) and 466 strikeouts (519).
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 468 home runs in 285 games, an average of 1.64 per game. The Roadrunners have led the NCAA in home runs in four of the past five seasons and have hit more long balls during that span than any other program. In 2006, 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.
A New Era: Lori Cook is in her third year as head coach with a career 67-49 record (.578). In her first season in 2006, UTSA went 37-14, 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 opens Southland Conference play with a three-game set against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday-Wednesday, Feb. 26-27, at Roadrunner Field. Game one of the Tuesday doubleheader is set for 5 p.m., followed by a single game at 1 p.m. on Wednesday.
