SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will head to the West Coast for a three-game series at UC Irvine. Friday's opener is scheduled for 8:30 p.m. (CT) and the teams now will play a 2 p.m. (CT) doubleheader on Saturday.
The Roadrunners (6-2) head to California following Tuesday's 3-2 victory at No. 18 Houston. Andre Shewcraft pitched 2.1 innings of two-hit baseball, allowing one run with two strikeouts for his second win of the season and timely hitting led to runs in the second, third and fourth innings.
C.J. Pickering sits atop UTSA's season stats with a .394 average and a team-leading 13 hits and four doubles. Skyler Valentine is batting .323 on the strength of 10 hits and he also has scored nine runs, recorded seven RBIs and registered a .548 slugging percentage.
The Roadrunners will send out right-hander Chance Kirby (2.63 ERA) on Friday and righties Karan Patel (8.64 ERA) and Aaron Burns (4.61 ERA) for Saturday’s twinbill. All three have 10 strikeouts on the season.
UC Irvine (6-3) will bring a four-game winning streak into the weekend after a series win against Nevada and a midweek victory over Loyola Marymount.
Keston Hiura leads the Anteaters with a .500 batting average through nine games. He has a team-leading 18 hits with eight runs, two doubles, a pair of triples, four home runs and 12 RBIs.
Pitching for UCI will be Elliot Surrey and Shaun Vetrovec with the game three starter yet to be determined. Both Surrey and Vetrovec own perfect 0.00 ERAs in 10 and 14 innings of work, respectively.
UC Irvine took two of three games from UTSA last March 6-8 in the first meetings between the two programs.
Click here for complete series notes.