Sunday, March 26
Houston, Texas
1 PM
Rice University
12-12, 0
5
vs
6
UTSA
20-5, 0
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4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
UTSA
0
2
2
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6
10
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RICE
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1
Late Run Pushes Roadrunners past Owls
3/26/2023 5:31:00 PM | Baseball
Owls take on Lamar on Tuesday
Reckling Park: Aaron Smigelski, Ben Royo and Connor Walsh homered but UTSA scratched out a late run for a 6-5 win and take the weekend series against Rice.
The Details: For the third time in as many games the Roadrunners opened the scoring only to see Rice immediately strike back. On Friday it was two in the top of the first followed by two in the bottom of the inning, on Saturday two UTSA runs in the top of the second were answered with four by Rice in the bottom of the second, and on Sunday the Owls responded to a pair of Roadrunner runs in the top of the second with three in the span of two pitches. Smigelski slammed his first pitch from UTSA starter Zach Royse over the wall in left and Royo matched him with another shot to left, his fourth in the last six games. The Roadrunners re-gained the lead with two in the third and added another in the fifth before Connor Walsh blasted his team-leading sixth homer of the season, a two-run shot to tie the game 5-5. The game remained tied until the eighth when UTSA pushed across the winning run with two outs.
Notes
The Details: For the third time in as many games the Roadrunners opened the scoring only to see Rice immediately strike back. On Friday it was two in the top of the first followed by two in the bottom of the inning, on Saturday two UTSA runs in the top of the second were answered with four by Rice in the bottom of the second, and on Sunday the Owls responded to a pair of Roadrunner runs in the top of the second with three in the span of two pitches. Smigelski slammed his first pitch from UTSA starter Zach Royse over the wall in left and Royo matched him with another shot to left, his fourth in the last six games. The Roadrunners re-gained the lead with two in the third and added another in the fifth before Connor Walsh blasted his team-leading sixth homer of the season, a two-run shot to tie the game 5-5. The game remained tied until the eighth when UTSA pushed across the winning run with two outs.
Notes
- Rice is now 3-2 on Sundays and 2-2 in series finales.
- The Owls dropped to 2-2 in weekend series this year.
- The six home runs in the last two games were the most by the Owls in consecutive games since they hit six on June 2-3, 2017 at the Baton Rouge Regional.
- Over the last seven games, the Owls bullpen is 3-3 with three saves and a combined 1.89 ERA (52.1, 35, 13, 11, 20, 55).
- Rice limited UTSA, which came into the series leading C-USA in batting (.336 ) slugging (.537) to a .254 (29x114) batting average and a.421 slugging percentage on the weekend.
- Blake Brogdon was charged with the loss but struck out a season-high six in his longest outing of the year (3.1 innings).
- Royo is hitting .276 with a double, four homers and eight RBI in his last seven games.
- Smigelski was 4x9 in three starts this past week with two doubles and his first home run.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: KINGSBERY, Fischer (1-0)
L: Brogdon, Blake (1-2)
S: SHAFER, Daniel (5)
Batting:
2B: BARRY, Leyton 1 ; KILLEEN, Josh 1
HR: VALDEZ, Antonio 1 ; DIAZ, Sammy 1
RBI: SIRDASHNEY, Shane 1 ; BARRY, Leyton 1 ; VALDEZ, Antonio 1 ; DIAZ, Sammy 2 ; KING, Matt 1
Base Running:
RUNS: VALDEZ, Antonio 2 ; DIAZ, Sammy 2 ; KING, Matt 1 ; SMITH, Taylor 1
CS: VALDEZ, Antonio 1
HBP: DIAZ, Sammy 1
Batting:
2B: Smigelski, Aaron 1
HR: Walsh, Connor 1 ; Smigelski, Aaron 1 ; Royo, Ben 1
RBI: Walsh, Connor 2 ; Smigelski, Aaron 2 ; Royo, Ben 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Garibay Jr., Guy 1 ; Walsh, Connor 2 ; Smigelski, Aaron 1 ; Royo, Ben 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
3
R
1
H
2
RBI
2
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
AB
4
R
2
H
1
RBI
2
Players Mentioned
P
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballInf./OF
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