SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team will continue a four-game road swing with a midweek test at Baylor on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Baylor Ballpark, with the game broadcast live on ESPN+ with Lincoln Rose and Pat Combs calling the action.
UTSA (5-6) will face off with Baylor (10-4) in the fourth game of a seven-game road swing on Tuesday. UTSA played three games at No. 15 LSU last weekend and will venture to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a weekend series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this weekend.
The Roadrunners and the Tigers squared off in a thrilling weekend in Baton Rouge, La., last week, with each game coming down to the late innings. LSU, ranked as high as No. 15 last week by Collegiate Baseball and No. 18 by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, posted a 3-1 win with two runs in the eighth inning on Friday, then fought off a pair of extra-inning marathons on Saturday and Sunday to claim the series, with Saturday's game going nearly five hours into the 13th inning and Sunday's extra innings being played with the international tiebreaker rules through 11 innings.
UTSA has hit .299/.381/.460 through its first 11 games, with 22 doubles, 14 homers and 88 runs scored, stealing seven bases. On the mound, UTSA has a 4.08 team ERA, with the Roadrunners fielding .977 with seven double plays turned.
At the dish, senior first baseman Griffin Paxton leads the team with a .415 average with three doubles, two homers and 11 RBI. Junior shortstop Joshua Lamb has hit .341 with six doubles, one homer and 10 RBI, with second baseman Jonathan Tapia batting .324 with seven RBI. Graduate transfer Ian Bailey has batted .308 with three homers and 10 RBI and outfielder Dylan Rock has hit .304 with three doubles, one homer and six RBI.
On the mound, UTSA has used 16 different pitchers, with Shane Daughety (2-0, 2.50 ERA), Luke Malone (1-1, 2.76 ERA) and Reece Easterling (1-0, 3.38 ERA) each working in multiple starts. John Chomko (0-1, 2.45 ERA), Grant Miller (0-0, 5.40 ERA), Kobe Jaramillo (0-0, 5.40 ERA) and Ryan Ward (0-2, 9.64 ERA) each making a start. Hunter Mason (1-2, 4.82 ERA) has worked in a club-high five games in relief.
Baylor (10-4) comes into the midweek matchup having won eight straight games under Steve Rodriguez, the 2017 Big12 Coach of the Year, who took over the Bears after a decorated career as the head man at Pepperdine. Baylor's eight-game streak includes a four-game sweep over Memphis the week prior and three vs. Xavier last weekend.
The Bears have hit .337/.422/.471 as a team with 117 runs scored in 14 games, ripping 18 doubles, three triples, 14 homers and stealing 11 of 14 bases. Baylor has a 4.20 team ERA with 129 strikeouts and 63 walks in 122 innings, holding foes to a .247 average. Baylor has turned 10 double plays, fielded .966 and thrown out 8 of 12 would-be base stealers.
Antonio Valdez leads the team with a .432 average, with Jared McKenzie hitting .391 with five homers and 16 RBI. Jack Pineda has hit .370 with eight RBI, with Andy Thomas belting three homers with a .308 average.
In relief, Baylor has seen Jacob Ashkinos (1-0, 0.96 ERA), Hambleton Oliver (2-0, 1.29 ERA), Luke Boyd (0-0, 1.42 ERA), Logan Freeman (1-1, 2.16 ERA) and Ryan Leckich (0-0, 7.71 ERA) work in at least five games.
Baylor leads the all-time series with UTSA, 34-8, including a 24-4 margin in games played in Waco. The Roadrunners last won in 2017, 15-9 in Waco, with the teams splitting a home-and-home midweek series that year.
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