SAN ANTONIO — After opening the season last weekend in California, UTSA will open its home slate this weekend when it hosts the three-day UTSA Classic at Roadrunner Field. All the action will get underway on Friday morning.
The Roadrunners (2-3) will open the event at 5:30 p.m. on Friday evening against North Dakota (1-3) before 4:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. matchups on Saturday against Virginia (2-3) and Tulsa (3-2), respectively. The squad then will close the event on Sunday with an 11:30 a.m. contest against the Cavaliers and a 2 p.m. tilt with the Golden Hurricane.
Alyssa Cummings led the way with six hits in 12 at-bats to go along with a pair of walks en route to a .571 on-base percentage. The San Antonio native earned the start in all five games of the Titans Classic for the first starts of her career. Kendall Burton also aided the offense with a .313 average and a triple, which tied her with Rudi Cantu (2007-10) atop the career triples chart at UTSA with eight three-baggers, while freshman Bailee Badwin posted a team-best four RBIs.
In the circle, Lizzy Fox and Chelsea Parker each tallied a win and a save. Parker tossed 21 of the team’s 33 innings and recorded a 2.67 ERA with eight strikeouts.
North Dakota returns 12 letterwinners from last year’s team, including All-Big Sky Conference honorable mention picks Shelby Hard and Nicole Babrowski. Hard led the Fighting Hawks in batting average (.333), runs (30), hits (53), homers (15) and RBI’s (37) a season ago as the team finished 12-43. Babrowski hit .500 with six walks last weekend as North Dakota opened the season at the Cyclone Indoor Invitational in Ames, Iowa.
Meanwhile, Virginia returns 11 letterwinners and much of its offense from last year’s team that went 16-40. Among the returners is Kaitlin Fitzgerald, who hit .360 and drove in 42 runs. The Cavaliers opened the season with wins over Utah State and Boise State before they dropped the final three games of the Kajikawa Classic in Tempe, Ariz., to Northwestern, East Carolina and San Jose State. Katie Park led the way for Virginia by hitting .583 (7-of-12) with four doubles, a home run and four RBIs.
Picked to finish second in the American Athletic Conference, Tulsa also returns 11 players from last year’s squad that went 36-18 and finished second in the league. The Golden Hurricane opened the season with wins over Wright State, Hofstra and Penn State before setbacks against Florida Atlantic and Hofstra last weekend at the FAU Kick-Off Tournament in Boca Raton, Fla. Jodi Edmiston (.438), Maddie Withee (.417) and Maggie Withee (.400) all hit better than .400, but the team logged a .227 batting average during the tournament. In the circle, Tulsa hurlers recorded a 1.03 ERA as just five of its 13 runs allowed were earned.
UTSA owns a combined 8-8 record against the group with 15 of those 16 contests coming against Tulsa. The Golden Hurricane lead the all-time series against the Roadrunners, 8-7, including wins in the last five meetings. The teams met three times as members of Conference USA during the 2014 season. In addition, UTSA defeated North Dakota back on Feb. 24, 2012, in the only meeting between the programs, while the Roadrunners and Cavaliers will meet for the first time.