SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team will open up the home spring break week on Tuesday, hosting Abilene Christian on Tuesday at 4 p.m. at Roadrunner Field.
The game was originally announced as a 6 p.m. first pitch but has been moved to 4 p.m. It will be streamed on ESPN+ with Karl Schoening and Mike Capps on the call.
QUICK HITS
Broc Parmer is on a 12-game reached base streak, while Caleb Hill is on a seven-game hitting streak. Hill also has a team-high eight multi-hit games, including a program record five-hit game.
The Roadrunners lead the American Athletic Conference in five different stat categories, including batting average (.302), hits (174), strikeout-to-walk ratio (3.52), and least walks allowed per nine innings (2.57). Hill leads the conference in runs (23) and runs per game (1.53), while Matt King has hit a conference-leading four sacrifice flies. Zach Royse has the most starts (4) in the conference, while Ruger Riojas leads the American with four victories. Hector Rodriguez is the toughest batter to strike out in the nation with a 0.0 strikeout rate.
SCOUTING THE WILDCATS
Abilene Christian holds a 10-7 record this season, after a series win over Tarleton in which the Wildcats took two of three in Stephenville. The Wildcats are currently in third place in the Western Athletic Conference standings. The team was predicted to finish fourth in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Senior outfielder Miller Ladusau was selected to the Preseason All-WAC Team. Ladusau leads the team with a .389 batting average, along with 21 hits, 15 runs and 13 RBI. Gino D’Alessio leads the team and the conference with 22 RBI and four sacrifice flies. The Wildcats are sixth in the nation in sacrifice flies with 15.
SERIES HISTORY VS ABILENE CHRISTIAN
The Roadrunners and Wildcats are tied at 2-2 in the all-time series, including a 2-1 home advantage for UTSA. Last season, UTSA fell on the road at Abilene Christian by 10-8, despite the Roadrunners battling back from a 6-0 deficit and taking the lead in the sixth. Before last season, the two teams had only played each other once in each of the 2018, 2003 and 2002 seasons.
LAST TIME OUT FOR THE ROADRUNNERS
UTSA is coming off a series loss to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in which the Roadrunners only won one game of the three-game series in Corpus Christi. All three games were close ones within one or two runs, but it didn’t favor UTSA in the end.
The Islanders took game one on Friday by 4-2. Broc Parmer had a 2-for-4 showing with one run, one RBI and a home run – his third of the season. Ruger Riojas kept A&M-Corpus Christi scoreless through the final 2.1 innings.
The Roadrunners battled through a 12-inning thriller on Saturday and came out victorious by 5-4. Caleb Hill had a phenomenal five-hit game, tying a program record for most hits in a single game. He scored three of UTSA’s five runs. Zach Royse turned in a quality start of 6.1 innings in which he allowed just one run. Riojas (4-0) earned his fourth win of the season, keeping the Islanders off the board in the final 3.1 innings of action.
The series ended with a 6-4 loss despite UTSA tying the finale up late in the game. Matt King led the team with a 2-for-3 game, including a run and a RBI. A&M-Corpus Christi took an early lead with four runs in the first, but the Roadrunners tied it up in the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, the Islanders again took the lead by 6-4 and that would be enough for them to take the series.
The Roadrunners had a big 21-4 win over Tarleton at home last Wednesday. Freshman second baseman Diego Diaz led the team with a 4-for-6 performance, including two runs, two RBI and a double. Five more Roadrunners picked up multi-hit games, including Matt King, Tye Odom, Alexander Olivo, Caleb Hill and James Taussig.
Fischer Kingsbery (1-1) earned his first win of the season, picking up four strikeouts in 1.2 innings of action. The team earned 10 season game highs, including 41 at-bats, 21 runs, 19 hits, 18 RBI, four home runs, 34 total bases, six walks, two sacrifice flies and 15 strikeouts.
CHILL OUT, CALEB
Senior Caleb Hill was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week on March 4 after leading UTSA to a 3-1 record the previous week. This was his second weekly conference accolade and his first in the AAC. In three starts during the week of Feb. 26, Hill picked up seven hits, six runs, six RBI and a couple of home runs.
Prior to the start of the season, he earned the No. 81 spot on D1Baseball’s Preseason Top 100 Outfielders list.
Hill leads the team in batting average (.431), hits (25), runs (23), RBI (16) and home runs (5). He is the conference leader in runs and runs per game (1.53), also ranking 24th and 25th in the nation in those respective categories.
THREE’S A LUCKY NUMBER
The Roadrunners were picked to finish third in their first season in the American Athletic Conference.
Ahead of UTSA in this year’s AAC Preseason Coaches’ Poll, powerhouse East Carolina took the top spot. Charlotte, who made the move to the AAC with UTSA this year and won last year’s C-USA Tournament, earned second place.
Following UTSA is Florida Atlantic, South Florida, Memphis, Wichita State, Rice, Tulane and UAB took the fourth-10th spots, respectively.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners continue their week at home, hosting a three-game series against Northwestern which features a doubleheader on Saturday starting at noon and a 1 p.m. series finale on Sunday.
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