SAN ANTONIO — On the strength of a season-high seven doubles, Rice rebounded to even this weekend's series at UTSA with an 11-3 victory on Saturday.
Blake Fox improved to 10-0 on the season after allowing two runs on six hits in 6.2 innings while every Rice hitter had at least one hit. Shane Hoelscher, Skyler Ewing and Michael Aquino each went 2-for-5 to pace the Owls (33-16, 19-7 C-USA).
Things got started on the right note for UTSA (31-20, 15-11 C-USA), as John Welborn led off the bottom of the first with a solo home run to left field. The blast was Welborn’s second of the spring.
Rice responded in the next half inning with three runs. Connor Teykl brought two runs in on a double down the left-field line and scored later in the inning on an error by Horacio Correa III at short.
Chase McDowell extended the lead to 4-1 in the top of the fifth with another double down the line to score John Clay Reeves.
The Roadrunners got the run back in the bottom half of the fifth on a sacrifice fly to center off the bat of C.J. Pickering. Jesse Baker was able to tag and score from third on the play. Baker finished the day 2-for-4 at the plate.
It was all Rice from that point on, as the Owls scored seven of the next eight runs, including five in the top of the ninth, to outdistance UTSA and even the series.
The lone UTSA run during the stretch came on Correa III’s RBI double to the gap in right center to score Welborn.
Ewing contributed a two-run single in the ninth to get the big Rice rally started.
The rubber match will be played at 1 p.m. on Sunday.