SAN ANTONIO — Tess Soefje and Kendall Burton each homered for UTSA, but Celina Felix's round-tripper in the top of the seventh lifted visiting Texas to a 3-2 win on Wednesday night at Roadrunner Field.
Soefje, Burton and Jade Smith each recorded a pair of hits for the Roadrunners (13-23), who out-hit the Longhorns (25-9) 6-5. With a pair of singles, Smith extended her hitting streak to 15 games and raised her batting average to a team-leading .344. In the circle, Nicole Merrill tossed all seven frames and allowed two earned runs on five hits with four strikeouts.
In front of a season-high crowd, Texas got on the board first with a run in the top of the third following a pair of UTSA errors. The first two Longhorns batters of the inning reached following defensive miscues that put runners on second and third with no outs. Merrill got a strikeout, but a walk loaded the bases and the visitors plated the first run of the game on a sacrifice fly.
The cushion doubled to 2-0 the following inning when Texas cashed in after two walks to start the frame. Merrill nearly escaped the jam, but Felix, who finished 3-for-4, dumped a two-out single to right-center to extend the lead.
UTSA wasted little time in slicing the deficit in half in the bottom of the frame when Soefje crushed a no-doubt homer to center field. The blast, which was her sixth of the season, came on the second pitch of the at-bat and closed the gap to 2-1.
Merrill kept Texas off the scoreboard as she did not allow a hit in the fifth or sixth innings and the home squad would tie the contest in the bottom of the sixth.
Burton opened the inning by taking Kristen Clark's 1-1 offering over the wall in right field for her first homer of the season. The sophomore's eighth career round-tripper knotted the score 2-2 and set the stage for a tense seventh inning.
Felix matched Burton's leadoff homer with one of her own to start the top of the seventh for what proved to be the winning run.
However, in the bottom of the inning UTSA loaded the bases with two outs on walks to Chelsea Parker and Burton that were sandwiched around a bunt single by Smith. But the Roadrunners could not drive home the tying or winning runs as Clark escaped the jam with a grounder to end the contest.
Clark improved to 2-1 on the season after allowing two runs on six hits with three walks and nine strikeouts.
UTSA will return to Conference USA action this weekend when it hosts Southern Miss (18-21, 5-7 C-USA). The series will open with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday before closing with a 1 p.m. contest the following day.
