EL PASO — Madison Kinley tied career highs with three hits and four RBIs and she capped a six-run top of the seventh with a grand slam to help power UTSA past UTEP, 10-5, in Sunday's series finale at Helen of Troy Field.
Tess Soefje also homered and recorded a pair of hits for the Roadrunners (13-22, 7-5 C-USA), who never trailed in the contest. Kendall Burton went 2-for-3, while Bailee Baldwin came off the bench to go 2-for-2 with an RBI double.
The offense backed Lizzy Fox, who improved to 6-7 after she tossed all seven innings. The sophomore allowed 11 hits and five runs with three strikeouts.
As it had in the previous two games against the Miners (17-21, 8-4 C-USA), UTSA grabbed an early lead, this time with two runs in the third.
Zoe Bacon started the inning with a walk before Baldwin came in to run and play right field. Kinley, who finished 3-for-3, punched a single to right for the Roadrunners' first hit of the day. Baldwin would score on an error for a 1-0 lead and a grounder from Jade Smith would score another run.
UTEP cut the lead in half with a run in the bottom of the frame, but the Roadrunners got it right back on Baldwin's two-out RBI double in the top of the fourth. The Miners again answered with a run to trim the UTSA lead to 3-2.
In the top of the sixth, Soefje crushed her sixth homer of the season with a blast to right field that doubled the advantage for the visitors to 4-2. However, a two-out double from Kiki Pepi in the bottom of the sixth plated two runs and knotted the score, 4-4.
The UTSA bats wasted little time in regaining the upper hand in the top of the seventh. Smith started the rally with an infield single to extend her hitting streak to 14 games. A sacrifice bunt and an error put runners on the corners with just one out. Chelsea Thomas lined a double to the wall in right-center field to score Smith and Kaley Pyles followed with an RBI single to left to push the lead to 6-4.
After a ground out and a walk to load the bases, Kinley took the second pitch that she saw from Kaitlin Fifield over the wall in right field for the second grand slam of her career and the first for the Roadrunners this season.
UTEP got one run back in the bottom of the inning, but Fox struck out Cortney Smith to close out the 10-5 victory.
UTSA will return to the friendly confines of Roadrunner Field for a 6 p.m. contest against Texas (22-9) on Wednesday, April 6.