SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will face its first ranked opponent of the season on Tuesday night when it travels to No. 18 Houston for a 6:30 p.m. midweek contest.
The Roadrunners (5-2) are coming off last weekend's series win against McNeese State. UTSA outscored the Cowboys, 32-24, en route to its second series win to open the campaign.
C.J. Pickering is batting at a .414 clip on the strength of a team-leading 12 hits and four doubles. He also has scored five runs and registered six RBIs. Skyler Valentine sits behind him with a .333 batting average with nine hits, eight runs, two home runs and seven RBIs in addition to a .593 slugging percentage and .400 on-base percentage.
On the mound, Andre Shewcraft leads the Roadrunners pitching staff with a 2.45 ERA through 7.1 innings of work. Shewcraft got his lone win of the season last Tuesday at Sam Houston State.
Earning the start on Tuesday for UTSA will be left-hander Karl Craigie. The southpaw owns a 2.45 ERA in 3.2 innings in relief this spring.
Houston (4-3) opened the season with a series sweep of Villanova and followed that with a 14-1 victory against McNeese State. All three losses of the Cougars' losses this year have come against ranked opponents — then-No. 13 TCU, then-No. 18 Arkansas and then-No. 23 Texas Tech.
Leading the season box score is Joe Davis, who is hitting .538 with six runs, 14 hits and 13 RBIs.
Getting the nod for Houston on Tuesday will be Marshall Kasowski. The right-hander has logged five innings of work in his lone appearance this spring with seven strikeouts.
Click here for complete games notes.