Owls Take UTSA Series with 9-3 Win on Saturday

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Reckling Park: Rice exploded for five runs in the first inning and J.D. McCracken held a potent UTSA lineup in check as the Owls clinched the series against the Roadrunners, 9-3 on Saturday afternoon at Reckling Park.

The Details: UTSA came into the weekend leading the AAC in hitting (.315), but McCracken held the Roadrunners to just six hits in 28 at-bats (.214). He held them off the board until the sixth, working out of several jams with double plays, and missed an opportunity to become the first Owl since 2013 to throw two complete games in a season when he allowed a run in the eighth. Jackson Blank came on in relief and needed just one pitch to induce the Owls' fourth double play of the game, allowing Rice to win its fifth straight game and third consecutive AAC series while handing UTSA its first conference series defeat. After he worked around a two-out single in the top of the first, McCracken saw his teammates strike for five runs after two were out in the bottom of the inning to provide him all the support he would need. Nathan Becker's bases-loaded single brought home Jacob Devenny and Treyton Rank with the first runs of the game and Trey Duffield followed with a home run inside the foul pole in right field to bring in three more. Rice has had at least one inning of at least four runs in five consecutive games. After batting around in the first, the Owls added three runs in the second. After the Roadrunners broke through with two runs in the sixth, the Owls got one run back in the bottom of the inning when Tobias Motely led off with a double and came home on Ben Dukes' third hit of the day.
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Up Next: The series concludes on Sunday with the first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. The Owls will be on the road for their next five games, with a midweek game at Lamar on Wednesday followed by a weekend series at Charlotte, and then a game at Texas A&M on May 7. They return home on May 8 for the final stretch of home games with Lamar (May 8), FAU (May 10-12) and Texas Southern (May 14).

Notes

Rice has won eight of its last nine overall and seven of its last eight in AAC play.
The Owls improved to 30-20 vs. UTSA and won the season series for the first time since taking two of three in San Antonio in 2018 and for the first time at Reckling Park since 2017.
The five-game winning streak is the longest by Rice since 2019 when they swept back-to-back C-USA series against Middle Tennessee and LA Tech.
Rice has won three consecutive conference series for the first time since they won five straight in 2017.
The Owls have scored at least nine runs in each of the last five games. The last time they scored at least nine in five consecutive games was in 20010 (March 28-April 4)
The Owls have scored 11 of their 18 runs in the first two games of the series with two outs.
The Owls turned four double plays in the game and have seven in the first two games. This is the third time this year they have had four double plays in a game, the most since they did it three times in 2009,
The Owls have scored four or more runs in an inning in the last five games and six times in the last eight. They had scored four or more twice in the first 34 games.
Rice collected a season-high 16 hits and each starter had at least one.
The six hits by UTSA were its fewest in AAC games.
The Owls' 7-9 hitters (Manny Garza, Duffield, and Motley) were 4x12 on Saturday. The bottom third of the Owls' order has hit a combined .317 (19x60) and scored 17 runs over the last five games. In the first 34 games of the season, the lower third of the Owls' batting order hit a combined .197 and scored 35 runs.

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