| Senior Lance Brown had season highs of four hits and four RBIs on Tuesday. |
SAN ANTONIO — Austin Gracey tied a Houston single-game record with three home runs in addition to driving in a career-high seven runs and the Cougars walked out of the Bird Bath with a 14-8 victory against UTSA on Tuesday night.
Gracey, who entered the contest with just one homer and 12 RBIs in 84 at-bats this season, launched a three-run homer as a part of six-run second, a two-out solo shot two innings later and another three-run blast with one down in the fifth. He had two cracks at breaking the program mark shared by other three players but was unable to rewrite the record book to himself.
The sophomore third baseman led an 18-hit attack that also saw Joel Ansley and MP Cokinos record three hits apiece. Matt Creel, Blake Kelso and Caleb Ramsey each added a pair of safeties.
Houston (14-17) won for the just the second time in its last nine games in avenging a 6-5 loss to the Roadrunners two weeks ago at Cougar Field, while UTSA (13-18) dropped its fifth contest in the past seven outings.
Ty Stuckey (1-0) picked up his first win of the year after tossing three scoreless frames out of the Cougars bullpen. He allowed only a pair of singles and struck out six in the 43-pitch performance. In fact, a quintet of UH hurlers combined to fan 14 hitters on the night, including at least two in each of the final five panels, and 11 of the final 18 Birds went down on strikes. The Roadrunners now have struck out 10 or more times in 11 of their past 15 games.
Sophomore right-hander Jason Walls (0-1), making his first start in more than two years, was charged with the loss after coughing up a six runs on a half dozen hits and a pair of walks in his two innings of work. The Sachse native last started on March 18, 2008, against Texas-Pan American.
Senior Lance Brown went 4-for-5 with a season-high four RBIs to lead UTSA on offense, while junior Ryan Hutson added two hits, including a lead-off homer in the fifth for his seventh long ball of the spring. Freshman Ryan Dalton left the park as part of UTSA's five-run fourth and that was his team-leading eighth bomb of the year. Meanwhile, junior Tyler Carpenter extended his season-long hitting streak to a dozen contests with his two-out single in the third.
The Roadrunners begin a season-long nine-game road trip on Friday night at Northwestern State (22-10, 9-5 SLC). First pitch at Brown-Stroud Field is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.