SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team is set to close out the regular season with a pivotal three-game, Conference USA series against Charlotte this week. The two teams will open the set at 6 p.m. Thursday, while game two is slated for 6 p.m. Friday. The series will wrap up at 10 a.m. Saturday at Roadrunner Field.
UTSA also is slated to honor its 10 seniors prior to Friday night's contest.
The Roadrunners (29-21, 14-12 C-USA) enter the series as winners of four of their last five games, including a 5-0 victory against Abilene Christian on Tuesday night at the Bird Bath. While UTSA already has clinched a berth in next week's C-USA Championship, the squad is battling for seeding.
The 49ers (30-20, 16-11 C-USA), who have won seven of their last eight, sit in fourth place in the league standings, one-and-a-half games ahead of the Roadrunners and FIU. Rice is in seventh place with an 11-14-2 mark in league play, while UAB is clinging to the eighth spot at 12-15. WKU (11-16 C-USA) and Middle Tennessee (10-16-1) also are fighting for a chance to play in the postseason.
UTSA can finish anywhere between fourth and eighth, depending on this week's outcomes.
Sixth-year head coach Jason Marshall has decided upon Steven Dressler and Chance Kirby to pitch the first two games of the series, while Saturday's starter has not been announced.
Dressler, a left-handed senior who will open the series on the mound, is 5-3 with a 2.95 ERA in 13 starts this spring. He suffered the loss last Saturday in the middle game at Old Dominion after allowing two runs on nine hits in 4.2 innings.
Meanwhile, Kirby is slated to start on Friday night. The Austin native has been the headline of the rotation over the last month. He is 5-4 with a 2.93 ERA in 11 starts. In his last four starts, Kirby is 3-0 with a 1.03 ERA and 29 strikeouts over 26.1 stanzas. The right-hander picked up the win last Sunday after limiting the Monarchs to two runs over 6.1 frames.
Overall, the Roadrunners' pitching staff ranks second in the league with a 3.62 ERA, which is the lowest since the 2014 team set the program record at 2.84.
Seven pitchers boast an ERA at 3.00 or lower, including six who have started games this season.
Derek Craft leads the bullpen with a 1.71 ERA in 47.1 innings. The righty has not allowed an earned run in his last three appearances.
In addition to the turnaround of the pitching staff, UTSA's offense has surged recently, posting double-digit hits in nine of its last 13 contests. The Roadrunners rank fourth in C-USA with a .284 batting average.
Four UTSA players are batting above .300, including junior infielder Bryan Arias, who leads the squad at .337. Arias, who has been in the leadoff spot for most of the season, is tied for the team lead with seven home runs, while also driving in 32 runs and slugging a team-high .545.
Trent Bowles (.330), Dylan Rock (.323) and Ben Brookover (.317) also are hitting over .300. Bowles and Brookover share the top spot with Arias in the home run race, while Brookover has driven in a team-best 47 runs.
Charlotte is 7-5 all-time against UTSA, in a series that dates back to the 2014 campaign. The Roadrunners won two of three games in the regular-season series a year ago, but the 49ers defeated UTSA in a winners' bracket matchup at the C-USA Championship last May.
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