| Senior Trent Lockwood finished the weekend with four home runs and 13 RBIs. |
NATCHITOCHES, La. ? Senior first baseman Trent Lockwood led a 17-hit attack with a pair of home runs and three RBIs and junior southpaw Kris Ruepke tossed a complete-game six-hitter to lead UTSA to a 12-2 victory at Northwestern State on Sunday afternoon at Brown-Stroud Field.
Junior center fielder Michael Rockett added a pair of doubles and a triple in four at-bats to go along with four RBIs, as the Roadrunners (24-11, 11-4 SLC) swept their second league series this season and seventh in the last two campaigns. UTSA won for the sixth time in the last seven contests, all on the road, and now have been victorious 10 of its last 13 games overall.
Coupled with Lamar's 15-12 loss to Sam Houston State and Southeastern Louisiana's 16-9 victory against Texas State on Sunday, the Roadrunners now own the league's best record at the midway point of the 30-game conference slate.
Ruepke (3-2) was outstanding in his first weekend start of the year. The Adel, Iowa, native walked four and fanned two in the 131-pitch performance. He lost his shutout bid when Mike Jaworski launched a solo home run in the eighth inning, his fourth in the last two games and SLC-leading 12th of the year. The Demons (17-16, 9-5 SLC) went on to add a tally in the ninth on a pair of singles.
The Roadrunners backed their starting pitcher with five runs in the third and two more one inning later to take a commanding 7-0 lead.
UTSA closed things out with a three-run eighth and a pair of runs in the ninth to post their eighth double-digit victory of the year.
Lockwood hit his eighth long ball of the year, a two-run shot over the center field wall in the third, and later added his team-leading ninth five innings later, a towering bomb that cleared the scoreboard in right. The Groesbeck native finished the weekend set with a .538 batting average (7-for-13), four homers and 13 RBIs. He also scored four runs and was intentionally walked three times.
Senior catcher Zach Etheredge added three hits, including a pair of doubles, and junior shortstop James Keithley singled in both the eighth and ninth frames to extend his career-long 22-game hitting streak. He now is one game shy of tying J.R. Voyles' school-record stretch of 23 contests, which was set two years ago. All told, eight of the nine Roadrunners starters on offense had at least one hit and seven recorded multi-hit efforts and everyone but freshman right fielder Tyler Carpenter crossed the plate.
Demons starter Clayton Cooper (4-1) suffered his first loss of the year after giving up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits and a pair of walks in five innings of work.
UTSA concludes its season-long nine-game road trip on Tuesday and Wednesday with a pair of non-conference tilts at Lamar (20-14). First pitch in Tuesday's opener is slated for 6:30 p.m. at Vincent-Beck Stadium. Sophomore right-hander Ryan Proudfoot (4-2, 4.42 ERA) will get the start for the Roadrunners.