UTSA Takes Series
5/16/2025 11:19:00 PM | Baseball
Owls Seeding for AAC Championship to be Determined on Sunday
San Antonio: UTSA jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first inning and never trailed as the Roadrunners downed Rice 11-4 on Friday night.
How it Happened: The Roadrunners carried over their momentum from Thursday night's come-from-behind win, striking for five runs in the first off loser J.D. McCracken (4-5) on a sacrifice fly and three singles. Rice responded with three runs in the top of the second. Landon West led off the inning with his fifth home run of the season, and this was his second in as many games in the series. Hiram Bocachica Jr. and Paul Smith followed one out later with singles and Bocachica scored on a single by Arik Anderson and Cole Green brought Smith home with a sacrifice fly. After the Roadrunners added two runs in the bottom of the third, the Owls scored their final run of the night in the fifth when Michael Zito drove in Green with an RBI single. UTSA answered the Owls' run with a pair in the fifth and added single runs in the sixth and eighth to clinch the series.
Up Next: The Owls and Roadrunners wrap up the regular season at 1 p.m. on Saturday as UTSA holds its annual Senior Day.
Notes
How it Happened: The Roadrunners carried over their momentum from Thursday night's come-from-behind win, striking for five runs in the first off loser J.D. McCracken (4-5) on a sacrifice fly and three singles. Rice responded with three runs in the top of the second. Landon West led off the inning with his fifth home run of the season, and this was his second in as many games in the series. Hiram Bocachica Jr. and Paul Smith followed one out later with singles and Bocachica scored on a single by Arik Anderson and Cole Green brought Smith home with a sacrifice fly. After the Roadrunners added two runs in the bottom of the third, the Owls scored their final run of the night in the fifth when Michael Zito drove in Green with an RBI single. UTSA answered the Owls' run with a pair in the fifth and added single runs in the sixth and eighth to clinch the series.
Up Next: The Owls and Roadrunners wrap up the regular season at 1 p.m. on Saturday as UTSA holds its annual Senior Day.
Notes
- Wichita State's 6-5 win over Memphis allowed the Shockers to clinch the final spot in the 2025 AAC Baseball Championship presented by Regions, which opens play on Tuesday at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Florida
- Rice and Wichita State are tied for seventh in the conference with identical 10-16 conference records. Rice holds the tiebreaker by virtue of winning the season series against the Shockers and can clinch the seventh seed in the tournament with either a win over UTSA on Saturday or a loss by WSU to Memphis.
- The eighth seed will meet regular-season champion UTSA in the second game on Tuesday, which will begin 47 minutes after the completion of the opening game of the tournament between the fourth and fifth seeds which begins at 8 a.m. (central).
- The seventh seed will face Charlotte at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
- Rice fell to 30-23 all-time against UTSA and to 8-12 at Roadrunner Field and has last its last seven at UTSA's home field.
- West's homer extended Rice's home run streak to 10-straight games (18 total), the Owls' longest streak since they homered in 15 consecutive games from April 23-May 22, 2010.
- Colin Robson led off the game with a single, the seventh time in the last 11 games he has reached base in the Owls' first at-bat of the game. He is 6x10 with a home run and a double, in addition to drawing a walk.
- Green's RBI was his 12th in his last eight games.
- West has driven in seven in his last four games.
Players Mentioned
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