SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will look to bounce back from dropping three of four games on opening weekend when it hosts former Southland Conference foe Stephen F. Austin in a three-game series that begins at 6 p.m. on Friday at Roadrunner Field. The second game will take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday and it will conclude at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Since leaving the Southland, UTSA (1-3) has matched up with Stephen F. Austin just once, which resulted in a 13-3 victory at the 2013 UTSA Classic.
The Roadrunners' three losses have been by a combined four runs, two of which were by one run. Through four games, UTSA has combined for a .299 team batting average and it leads Conference USA in five offensive categories — hits (47), doubles (13), home runs (9), total bases (87) and sacrifice bunts (3).
Oufielder Kevin Markham had a stellar start to the season after sitting out 2016 with an injury. The Willis native batted .450 with nine hits, seven of which went for doubles, scored six runs, drove in another six and notched a .950 slugging percentage.
On the mound, UTSA used 15 different pitchers last weekend. The southpaws found the most success after Karl Craigie posted a perfect 0.00 ERA in three innings of relief. Nolan Trabanino, in his first action since 2015, earned the start on Saturday and allowed one run on six hits and posted 1.80 ERA in five innings of work.
Stephen F. Austin (2-3) heads to the Alamo City off Tuesday's 6-5 loss to Texas A&M in 12 innings.
The lumberjacks opened the season with Southeast Missouri and UT Arlington and split with both teams. SFA now has two games go into extra innings this spring with a 10-inning outing against the Mavericks. Jarrod Huber boasts a .500 batting average through a pair of games, but Tyler Kendrick is batting at a .389 clip, as he's gone 7-for-18 with five runs scored and a double. Erik Nouis has logged five innings and he did not allow a run and surrendered just three hits for a 0.00 ERA.
UTSA leads the all-time series against Stephen F. Austin with a 23-14 record.
