? Box score
? Trent Lockwood's home runs as heard on goUTSA.com (5.0 MB)
| Senior Trent Lockwood hit a UTSA-record-tying three homers and set a new school standard with nine RBIs on Wednesday. |
SAN ANTONIO ? UTSA matched a school record with five home runs, including a program-record-tying three by senior Trent Lockwood, and the Roadrunners set a new single-game mark for runs in a 27-4 victory against Prairie View A&M on Wednesday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
Lockwood, who pushed his season homers total to four, also set a new UTSA standard with nine RBIs and tied the program's record with five runs scored. The Groesbeck native also tied a school mark with two hits in the Roadrunners' eight-run third, which was his second such record in the last two seasons (third inning, at UT Arlington, April 7, 2007). Ryan Smith is the only other player in the program's 17-year history to launch three bombs in one contest (at Texas State, April 28, 2000).
"This was an important victory for us because we needed to get back on the winning track after losing to Texas A&M last night," Lockwood said. "I hadn't been hitting the ball all that well the past few games, so I came out for some extra hitting before batting practice and made some adjustments. I saw the ball really good today, but all the credit goes to my teammates because they got on base in front of me and gave me the opportunity to drive them in."
The Roadrunners (16-9), who scored in every inning but the second, continued their hot play at the Bird Bath, as they posted their 15th victory in the last 16 tilts at the facility dating back to April 15, 2007. UTSA also pushed its all-time record against the Panthers (12-13) to a perfect 18-0 in winning the first meeting between the two schools since March 20, 2001.
Junior Jose Hernandez went a perfect 3-for-3 with a school-record-tying three doubles, two of which came in the third frame. He also drew one walk, scored twice and brought home three Roadrunners before departing after the bottom of the fourth. Meanwhile, freshman Ryan Hutson hit the squad's other two long balls of the game to push his first-year total to three and he finished the rout with a career-best six RBIs.
Ironically enough, the previous UTSA record for runs in a game was 25, which happened against Prairie View A&M on Feb. 17, 1996, and seven years later against Iona (March 19, 2003). The last time the program recorded five homers in a game was on March 21, 1999, at Sam Houston State and other single-game school records set or tied on Wednesday included 17 walks (12/2x, last vs. Sam Houston State, May 15, 2004) and 44 total bases (tied record set on March 24, 2003, vs. Texas Pan American).
Junior James Keithley extended his season-high hitting streak to 12 games with his fourth-inning single up the middle, while sophomore Tim Palincsar pushed his streak to 11 contests with a base hit in the third. Freshman Tyler Carpenter and junior Michael Rockett both had three hits and they now have hit safely in 10 and eight games in a row, respectively. Carpenter had a career-best three hits for the second game in a row, while Rockett had his team-leading 13th double of the year, scored three times and drove home four.
Sophomore lefty Andy Benedict was the beneficiary of the offensive explosion and he improved to 2-0 after allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits in five innings. The Lewisville native struck out five and walked just one. Freshmen Jason Walls, Chris Griffin and Matt Crocker combined to allow just one run on one hit over the final four frames.
UTSA plated three runs in the first and put the game out of reach with eight more two innings later. The Roadrunners added five more in the fourth, three in the fifth and one in the sixth to take a commanding 20-4 lead into the contest's final three stanzas. However, the Birds weren't finished, as they put up a pair following the seventh-inning stretch and five more in the eighth to set the school record.
Southpaw Terry Salter (1-2) was tagged with the loss after giving up 11 runs on eight hits and seven walks in three frames of work.
John Villapando and Odie Davis had two hits apiece for the Panthers.
UTSA wraps up its current five-game home stand when it hosts UT Arlington in a weekend three-game Southland Conference series. Senior right-hander Steven Vasquez (3-2, 6.00 ERA) gets the start in the 6 p.m. Friday opener.