SAN ANTONIO — Taylor Oberg hit three home runs as part of a 24-hit day for UTSA as it swept a doubleheader against Louisiana Tech by scores of 5-0 and 8-4 on Saturday afternoon at Roadrunner Field.
Oberg hit a two-run homer in the first game before a solo shot and another two-run homer in game two for the Roadrunners (34-17, 15-7 C-USA), who took over first place in Conference USA’s West Division. Randee Crawford also hit two-round trippers, one in each contest, to take over the league-lead with 17 for the spring.
In the circle, Kacy Freeze (10-4) tossed a shutout in the opener before she recorded the final two outs of game two for her fourth save of the campaign.
In game one, Freeze scattered six hits and a walk and tallied seven strikeouts in seven shutout innings.
The Roadrunners got on the board first with a run in the bottom of the first. After an out to start the frame, Courtney Buchman, Megan Low and Vivian Tijerina each followed with singles for a 1-0 lead.
Freeze continued to shine in the circle with a pair of strikeouts in the second and third to keep the Lady Techsters (31-17, 12-8 C-USA) off the board.
UTSA then put up four runs in the fourth inning on a pair of homers to push the lead to 5-0.
Tijerina singled to start the frame and touched home on Crawford’s 16th homer of the season. Erica Sanchez lined a one-out double and Oberg followed with a two-run shot of her own, which was her third blast of the campaign.
That would be more than enough for Freeze, who worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the fifth and stranded two more runners in the sixth before a three-up, three-down frame in the seventh.
Pauline Tufi staked Louisiana Tech out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning of game two with a three-run homer. The blast came after a walk and an error and was the only hit of the frame for the visitors.
UTSA loaded the bases in the bottom of the frame, but had a runner thrown out at home and could not cut into the deficit.
The Lady Techsters added an unearned run in the top of the fifth for a 4-0 lead, only to see the Roadrunners respond with eight runs in the final two innings to take the victory.
Oberg got UTSA on the board with a solo homer to left-center field to start the bottom of the fifth. After Jade Smith’s bunt single, Kendall Burton followed with a double to the gap in right-center field that trimmed the deficit to 4-2.
The Roadrunners loaded the bases again, but Louisiana Tech starter Bailey Allen escaped the inning without further damage.
However, the UTSA bats came alive in the sixth inning against Tufi, who entered the day with a conference-leading six saves.
Erica Sanchez reached base to start the frame with a walk on a full-count pitch and Oberg knotted the game with a two-run blast to right field. Tufi retired the next two batters, but the Roadrunners would plate four more runs with two outs.
Buchman provided the go-ahead run with a solo homer to left for her 11th blast of the season. Low then walked and pinch runner Angelica Niño stole second before she raced home on Tijerina’s single to right-center for a 6-4 cushion. Crawford then took the second pitch of her at-bat over the wall in left for two more insurance runs and an 8-4 advantage.
Reliever Chelsea Parker, who entered in the fifth, retired the first batter of the seventh before back-to-back singles ended her outing. Freeze came on and got a groundout, but loaded the bases when she hit Krysta Tutsch with a pitch to bring the tying run to the plate. The junior nailed down the save when she got Bianca Duran to ground out and end the contest.
Parker improved to 9-4 after she allowed four hits to go along with three strikeouts in 2.1 scoreless innings.
The Roadrunners will look to sweep the three-game series when the teams meet at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Following the game, UTSA will honor its senior class of Buchman, Low, Tijerina and Kelsi Ott.