SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team is set to host the UAB Blazers in a three-game series in American Athletic Conference play this weekend at Roadrunner Field. The series opens on Friday at 6 p.m., before game two on Saturday is set for 11 a.m. and the series concludes at 12 p.m. on Sunday.
All three games will be broadcasted on ESPN+ with Mike Capps and Karl Schoening on the call.
QUICK HITS
UTSA has won all four of its conference series thus far, picking up series wins against then-No. 10 and conference favorite East Carolina, 2023 AAC Tournament champion Tulane, 2023 Conference USA Tournament champion Charlotte, and Memphis. The team is first in the league standings with a 9-3 AAC record.
The Roadrunners lead the American Athletic Conference in three different categories, including batting average (.316), hits (415) – eighth in the nation in this category, and walks allowed per nine innings (3.57). UTSA’s batters have been hit by pitch 74 times, which ranks second in the conference and 19th in the nation.
Ruger Riojas has a 1.91 ERA, which is third in the conference and 15th in the nation, and seven victories, which leads the conference and is fourth-most in the nation. Matt King leads the nation with nine sacrifice flies, while Mason Lytle is the toughest batter to strike out in the AAC (11.9).
Lytle takes the top league spot in four categories, including hits (66) and hits per game (1.83) – which he ranks second and third in the nation, respectively – as well as triples (3) and total bases (107).
AAC HONORS FOR THE ‘RUNNERS
Junior utility player James Taussig was named to the AAC weekly honor roll on Monday after leading the team with a .500 batting average, along with six hits, four runs, four RBI and two home runs. In the series-clinching finale against Memphis on April 14, Taussig paced the team with a 3-for-4 performance with one run and three RBI.
Senior right-handed pitcher Uli Quiroga and junior infielder Hector Rodriguez were both named to the conference weekly honor roll on April 8. This was Quiroga’s second time on the honor roll as he turned in a series-clinching quality start against Charlotte on April 7, only allowing one run and striking out seven in a six-inning start. Rodriguez had a breakout week in which he picked up eight hits, five runs, and five RBI for a .615 batting average. He also had a career-best 4-for-4 day in the April 6 matchup against Charlotte.
Junior outfielder Mason Lytle was named to the weekly honor roll on March 25, after he picked up nine hits, eight runs and a .450 batting average across four starts at center field during the previous week against Texas State and No. 10 East Carolina.
Quiroga’s first time on the weekly honor roll was March 18. He made his second start of the season in a 2-0 shutout over Northwestern on March 17 that secured UTSA’s second series win of the season. He recorded a quality start in which he pitched the first six innings and earned his first win (1-0), while keeping the Wildcats scoreless on just two hits.
SCOUTING THE BLAZERS
UAB holds an even 16-19 overall record, following a midweek 5-2 upset over No. 18 Alabama on Tuesday. The Blazers hold a 4-8 record in conference play and are currently ninth in the conference standings. UAB was voted to finish last out of 10 teams in the preseason coaches’ poll.
Junior outfielder Logan Braunschweig leads the team with a .305 batting average, 36 hits and 30 runs. Senior outfielder Darryl Buggs has a conference-leading three triples.
SERIES HISTORY VS UAB
The Roadrunners hold a 9-5 advantage in the all-time series against the Blazers, dating back to the 2014 season – UTSA’s first season in the Conference USA with UAB. The two teams both officially made the move to the American Athletic Conference in July 2023.
UTSA traveled to Birmingham, Ala., for a three-game series last season on April 28-30. The Blazers took the first game by 4-2, before the Roadrunners bounced back to take the final two games by 6-5 and 9-4 to secure the series win.
THE AMERICAN DREAM
In their first season in the American Athletic Conference, the Roadrunners hold a 9-3 record in conference play through the first four weekends and are first in the standings. UTSA has picked up a big series win against conference favorite and then-No. 10 East Carolina, as well as a road series sweep over 2023 AAC Tournament champion Tulane and home series win against 2023 C-USA Tournament champion Charlotte. Last weekend, the Roadrunners took two out of three games from Memphis to secure their fourth consecutive conference series win.
In AAC games only, the Roadrunners lead the conference in batting average, runs, hits, RBI and on-base percentage. Mason Lytle leads the conference in slugging percentage, runs and hits and at-bats, while King has the most sacrifice flies. Riojas leads the conference with three wins and a .186 opponents’ batting average. Ulises Quiroga is also tied with Riojas with three wins.
UTSA officially made the move to the AAC on July 1, 2023, joining a strong baseball conference, already consisting of East Carolina, Memphis, Wichita State and Tulane. A handful of former Conference USA opponents also made the transition with UTSA, including Charlotte, Florida Atlantic, Rice and UAB.
The Roadrunners have seen success in every conference they’ve joined. UTSA went 283-277 in the Southland Conference with two tournament championships and two regular season championships from 1993-2012. In their lone season in the Western Athletic Conference in 2013, the Roadrunners had a 15-11 conference mark and won the tournament. From 2014-2023 in the Conference USA, UTSA posted a 139-127 record.
LAST WEEK FOR THE ROADRUNNERS
UTSA began this week with a 4-2 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, evening the season series at 2-2 after the Islanders took two of three in an earlier series in Corpus Christi on March 8-10. Great pitching carried the team to victory highlighted by a win for Ryan Beaird (3.0 IP, 3H, 0R, 5K) and a save for Ruger Riojas (1.2 IP, 0H, 0R, 2K).
The Roadrunners earned a road series win over Memphis this past weekend as the Roadrunners picked up their fourth consecutive AAC series victory in as many tries. The team won the first game on Friday by 9-6. Mason Lytle paced the team with a 4-for-6 game, including three runs, one RBI and one triple. Hector Rodriguez also had a 3-for-5 day. Ruger Riojas earned his seventh win of the season, striking out three batters in 2.1 innings, while Daniel Garza earned his second save of the season.
UTSA dropped the second game on Saturday by 12-5 as the Tigers evened the series. James Taussig had a perfect 2-for-2 day with a home run, two runs and one RBI. Cooper Hrbacek and Anthony Giannette kept Memphis scoreless in the final three frames.
In Sunday’s rubber match, UTSA and Memphis battled back and forth but it was a pair of home runs by Lytle that proved to be the difference in the series-clinching 7-5 victory. Taussig had a team-leading 3-for-4 game as he picked up one run, three RBI and a home run. Ulises Quiroga picked up his fourth win of the season, while Fischer Kingsbery struck out five to earn his second save of the season.
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
With no midweek game next week, the Roadrunners head to Houston for a three-game AAC series against Rice on April 26-28. The series begins at 6:30 p.m. next Friday, before game two is set for 2 p.m. on Saturday and the series finale is at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
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