HOUSTON – The UTSA baseball team dropped the second game of the series against Rice by 9-3 on Saturday afternoon in American Athletic Conference action at Reckling Park in Houston.
QUICK HITS
· Mason Lytle and Matt King led the team with two-hit games. Lytle recorded two RBI, one run and a home run, while King collected one run and one double.
· Zach Royse kept the Owls scoreless on just three hits in the final three innings of the game.
· UTSA fell to a 24-18 overall record (11-6 in AAC action), while Rice improved to a 17-25 overall record (8-9 in conference play).
· This marks the Roadrunners’ first series loss in conference play this season.
BREAKDOWN OF THE GAME
The Owls jumped out to an early lead with a five-run bottom of the first. Rice added three more runs in the bottom of the second to extend their lead to 8-0.
The third through fifth frames went scoreless as Daniel Garza faced one more batter than the minimum and struck out four across that span.
The Roadrunners got on the board in the top of the sixth. After Olivo led off the inning with a first pitch double, Lytle sent the first ball he saw out of the park for a two-run home run, cutting UTSA’s deficit to 8-2.
Rice responded with one run in the bottom of the frame to extend its lead to 9-2. The sixth and seventh innings saw a few more zeros added to the board. Royse entered the game to relieve Garza on the mound and kept the Owls scoreless, despite allowing a few singles.
In the ninth, King led off the inning with a double to put himself in scoring position. Then, a groundout advanced him to third, within 90 feet of scoring. A single up the middle by Ty Tilson brought home King and cut into the Roadrunners’ deficit. UTSA was not able to bring across any more runs as Rice took game two of the series by 9-3.
ON DECK
The Roadrunners and Owls wrap up the series on Sunday as the finale is set for 1 p.m. at Reckling Park.
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