· Game 1 box score
· Game 2 box score
| Junior Ryan Hutson went a combined 6-for-9 with two home runs and five RBIs on Saturday. |
SAN ANTONIO — UTSA walked off with a pair of 11-10 victories against McNeese State in its final at-bat on Saturday and the Roadrunners extended their winning streak to 11 games against the Cowboys with their doubleheader sweep at the Bird Bath.
UTSA (19-27, 10-19 SLC) rallied for three runs in the ninth inning of the opener to give 10th-year head coach Sherman Corbett the 300th victory of his career and the Birds then got a run-scoring single from sophomore Matthew James with two down in the 10th in the nightcap to extend their winning streak to a season-best five games.
The Roadrunners now are two contests behind Nicholls (12-17 SLC) for the eighth and final spot in this month's Southland Conference Tournament with four regular season league tilts remaining. UTSA holds the tiebreaker by virtue of its sweep of the Colonels last weekend.
Junior right-hander Kevin Clarke (6-2) picked up both victories in relief for the Birds, while Matt Click (2-5) was the losing pitcher in both contests for McNeese State (27-22, 15-14 SLC).
It was a wild day of action, as the twinbill lasted seven hours and 53 minutes and the two teams combined for 42 runs on 59 hits, including 14 doubles, two triples and nine home runs.
Junior Ryan Hutson led the way for UTSA, going a combined 6-for-9 with five runs scored, a double, two homers and five RBIs. The pair of long balls pushed his season total to 13, which is second only to freshman Ryan Dalton, who left the park for the 15th time this spring in the first game. Hutson's 37 career long balls are one shy of third place (Michael Rockett, 2006-09) on the program's all-time list and two short of second (Kent Wallis, 1996-99). Jeff Juarez hit a school-record 47 from 1996-99.
Dalton continued his late-season surge with five more hits, including his solo homer in the opener, and he added three RBIs to push his team-leading total to 45.
Meanwhile, senior Jeff Taliaferro went 3-for-5 with a career-high five RBIs in the finale and missed the fourth cycle in program annals by a double. Taliaferro singled in the second, lined a run-scoring triple down the left-field line in the sixth and launched a grand slam an inning later.
Blake Ellender, Steven Irvine and Lee Orr all five hits on the day to pace the Cowboys, while Bryn Thompson hit a pair of homers and drove in six.
UTSA will go after its second consecutive sweep at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The Roadrunners' eight-man senior class — Lance Brown, Thomas Diamond, Cody Graham, Eric Johnston, Ryan Proudfoot, Ryan Rummel, Gilbert Saenz and Taliaferro — will be honored prior to first pitch.