SAN ANTONIO – The UTSA baseball team secured the series win over UAB with a 12-3 victory on Sunday afternoon in American Athletic Conference action at Roadrunner Field in San Antonio.
QUICK HITS
· James Taussig led the Roadrunners as he had a perfect 3-for-3 day at the plate with one run and two RBI.
· Caleb Hill had a two-hit game with three runs scored.
· Ulises Quiroga (5-0) earned his fifth win of the season, pitching a quality start (his fourth of the season) of six innings with two runs allowed and six batters struck out. This is Quiroga’s eighth quality start of his career.
· Braylon Owens picked up his first save of the season, recording three innings of shutout ball with four strikeouts.
· UTSA improved to a 24-16 overall record (11-4 in AAC action), while UAB fell to a 17-21 overall record (5-10 in conference play).
· The Roadrunners have won all five of their conference series thus far, including three home series and two road series. The team has won every series finale in conference play this season.
· UTSA and East Carolina are tied for first in the AAC standings with an 11-4 conference mark.
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
Quiroga set the tone with a swinging strikeout to start the game. He then allowed a couple of Blazers on base but escaped the inning unscathed. In the bottom of the first, the Roadrunners got on the board first as Mason Lytle took advantage of two errors and a wild pitch to give UTSA a 1-0 lead.
The second frame went scoreless as Quiroga picked up a couple more strikeouts. The Blazers took a 2-1 lead by scoring their first two runs of the game in the top of the third. The Roadrunners knotted up the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the frame on an RBI double by Taussig that brought home Hill.
UAB regained the 3-2 lead with another run scored in the top of the fourth. UTSA put together a three-run bottom of the fifth frame to take back the lead again. Hill reached base with a single, before Olivo hit a double down the left field line to drive him home and knot the score at 3-3. Then, two consecutive singles by Matt King and Taussig brought across two more runs to give UTSA a 5-3 advantage.
The sixth inning saw a couple more zeros on the board as Quiroga sat down the Blazers in order with two flyouts and a lineout.
Owens came in to close out the game in the seventh inning and forced a 1-2-3 frame with one strikeout. Then, the Roadrunners compiled a big five-run frame in the bottom of the seventh to break open the score.
Hill and Olivo earned full-count walks to start the inning, before UAB called to its bullpen for a pitching change. With the new pitcher in, King was hit by pitch to load the bases with still no outs on the board. Two consecutive singles and a sacrifice fly drove in three Roadrunners. After a wild pitch advanced Taussig and Diego Diaz to scoring position, a sacrifice fly by Isaiah Walker brought in one run. Stucky singled to left field to drive in Diaz and cap scoring in the inning with UTSA leading by 10-3.
Owens forced another three up, three down inning in the eighth with a flyout, strikeout and popout. In the bottom of the inning, the Roadrunners tacked on two more runs using an RBI single by Diaz and an error by the Blazers. Owens allowed a walk to lead off the ninth but followed that with two consecutive strikeouts. He then allowed another walk, but worked out of the jam with a groundout to the final batter. UTSA secured the 12-3 win over UAB to take the series victory.
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.
-UTSA-