San Francisco spoils opening day for UTSA on Friday nightSan Francisco spoils opening day for UTSA on Friday night
Jeff Huehn/UTSA Athletics
Baseball

San Francisco spoils opening day for UTSA on Friday night

SAN ANTONIO – UTSA committed four errors and San Francisco pounded out nine hits, as the Dons captured an 11-2 win over the Roadrunners on Friday night at Roadrunner Field.

UTSA (0-1) scored both of its marks in the third inning, while San Francisco (1-0) pushed runners across the plate six of the nine frames.

Chase Keng was 3 for 4 at the plate with a double to pace the Roadrunners. The freshman's first collegiate hit was a double to lead off the third, which sparked UTSA's best offensive inning of the night. Tony Beam also drove in a run on an infield single in the stanza.

Meanwhile, the Dons jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning. The Roadrunners were charged with two errors in the frame, which led to one of the tallies.

After UTSA picked up its two runs in the bottom of the panel, San Francisco picked up single marks in both the fourth and fifth innings before erupting for three more in the sixth to take a 8-2 advantage.

The Dons added on two in the eighth and one more in the ninth to secure the victory.

Thomas Ponticelli (1-0) picked up the victory for the visitors, as the right-hander worked 5.0 innings. He scattered five hits, gave up two hits, walked two and struck out seven on a 93-pitch effort. Brendan Jenkins hurled the final four stanzas, allowing only one hit, a walk and striking out three batters to earn a save.

Chance Kirby (0-1) was saddled with the loss for UTSA. The senior right-hander, who made his third consecutive opening day start, allowed four runs (two earned) on four hits while fanning six over 3.2 innings of work.

The two teams will play a doubleheader on Saturday to wrap up the series. The schedule was adjusted for the originally-scheduled three-day set. The middle game of the series is slated to begin at 2 p.m. with the finale to follow its conclusion.