MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – UTSA matched a season best with 16 hits and Karan Patel and Derek Craft combined for 11 strikeouts to lead the Roadrunners to a 12-1 victory at Middle Tennessee on Thursday night at Reese Smith Jr. Field.
The win snaps a seven-game losing skid for UTSA as the Roadrunners improve to 16-34 overall and 7-20 in Conference USA while Middle Tennessee falls to 20-24 and 5-23 in the league.
UTSA (16-34, 7-20 C-USA), which snapped a seven-game losing streak, was led by Trent Bowles, who went 4-for-4 with three runs – both career highs. All but one starter had at least one hit for the Roadrunners.
Meanwhile, Patel earned his second win of the season with seven strong innings of action. The freshman right-hander matched a career high with seven strikeouts and issued just one walk on the night. Craft finished up the game with two innings of work and matched a season best of four punchouts.
UTSA started off strong by scoring two runs in the first and another three in the second.
Skyler Valentine led off the game with a shot up the middle and came around to score the first run of the inning on Bryan Arias' infield single. Tyler Straub scored the following run on a sacrifice fly from Mason George.
Middle Tennessee broke the silence in the third, but that would be all for the Blue Raiders.
In the fifth, another two runs came across the plate for the Roadrunners.
Arias led off the frame with a double and eventually scored on C.J. Pickering's RBI single. Three batters later, a wild pitch allowed Pickering to score.
UTSA tacked on another three runs in the seventh that began with Pickering's team-leading fifth home run. A pinch-hit RBI single from Ryan Stacy four batters later scored the second run of the inning and Matt Hilston's sacrifice fly that scored Bowles with the final run of the inning.
The scoring barrage would not end there, as the Roadrunners scored twice in the ninth on Hilston's two-run single.
Friday's second game is slated to begin at 6 p.m.
