SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team will host Rice in a three-game Conference USA series this weekend at Roadrunner Field. The set is slated to open with a 6 p.m. game on Friday. Saturday's contest will begin at 4 p.m., while the first pitch of Sunday's series finale is set for 1 p.m.
2007 & '08 TEAMS TO BE HONORED
Prior to Saturday's game, UTSA will honor its 2007 and '08 Southland Conference championship teams. Under the direction of former head coach Sherman Corbett, the 2007 Roadrunners set a Southland record with a 24-6 mark in league play en route to a regular season crown. The Birds repeated in 2008 with a 22-8 record. Corbett, who will throw out the ceremonial first pitch on Saturday, was named the Southland Conference Clay Gould Coach of the Year in both seasons.
ABOUT UTSA
The Roadrunners (25-18, 11-9 C-USA) enter the weekend on a three-game winning streak that includes an 14-1 win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in seven innings on Tuesday night. UTSA sits in fourth place in the current league standings, five games back of league-leading Southern Miss and one-half game ahead of Charlotte and UAB.
ABOUT RICE
The Owls (18-25-2, 7-12-2 C-USA) dropped two of three against Charlotte last weekend in Houston, but bounced back to defeat Lamar, 2-1, on Wednesday evening. Rice enters the weekend in ninth place in the C-USA standings.
STARTING PITCHING MATCHUPS
Friday
UTSA - Karan Patel, rhp (2-2, 4.11 ERA) vs.
RICE - Matt Cantering, rhp (4-4, 3.26 ERA)
Saturday
UTSA - Steven Dressler, lhp (5-2, 2.76 ERA) vs.
RICE - Addison Moss, rhp (1-3, 1.91 ERA)
Sunday
UTSA - Chance Kirby, rhp (3-4, 3.46 ERA) vs.
RICE - TBA
ABOUT THE SERIES
The two teams have met 25 times previously with Rice holding a 20-5 advantage in the all-time series, which dates back to the 1994 season. The Owls have won three of the last five matchups, including two of three last year in Houston. In the last series played in San Antonio (March 18-20, 2016), UTSA won only the middle game of the set.
POWER HOUR
The Roadrunners belted four home runs in Tuesday's win over the Islanders, which tied a season high. Trent Bowles hit two, a three-run homer in the third inning and a solo shot in the sixth. Dylan Rock and Ryan Stacy hit back-to-back round-trippers in the fifth. Rock smacked a two-run bomb, while Stacy hammered the first pitch of his at-bat over the wall in left-center.
NEW FOUND POWER
Junior outfielder Ryan Stacy has hit four home runs since April 20. The Sugar Land native went 292 at-bats into his collegiate career before hitting his first homer against FIU two weeks ago. Stacy went deep again on April 24 against Incarnate Word. He then hit his third round-tripper of the season on April 28 at Middle Tennessee and followed that act up three days later with the pinch-hit bomb against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
STREAKING
The following Roadrunners enter the weekend on season-long hitting streaks:
Tony Beam - 11 games
Dylan Rock - 6
Chris Estrada - 4
Below is a list of all current UTSA hitting streaks:
Tony Beam - 11
Dylan Rock - 6
Ben Brookover - 4
Chris Estrada - 4
Bryan Arias - 3
Trent Bowles - 3
Ryan Stacy - 3
Chase Keng - 2
Joshua Lamb - 2
Garrett Moon - 1
CONFERENCE LEADERS
UTSA leads Conference USA in four offensive categories – doubles (86), doubles per game (2.0), triples (15) and triples per game (0.35) – and one pitching category – hits allowed per nine innings (7.82).
BROOKOVER FEASTING ON CONFERENCE PITCHING
UTSA senior first baseman Ben Brookover is excelling against Conference USA opponents this spring. The San Antonio native is hitting .370 with eight doubles, two triples, five home runs and 28 RBIs versus C-USA foes. He is slugging .704 and reaching base at a .441 clip in the 20 games.
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