The No. 22 UTSA baseball team is set to host its final home series of the season, going head-to-head in a battle for first place in Conference USA with No. 18 Dallas Baptist University this weekend at Roadrunner Field. This will be the first time ever that a ranked UTSA baseball team hosts another ranked squad on its home field as this weekend’s UTSA-DBU series is being widely viewed as one of the premier matchups of the college baseball season.
Due to impending weather, the series will open with a doubleheader at 3 p.m. on Friday, with the second game to follow 45 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. The third game could be played on Saturday or Sunday, weather permitting. All three games will also be available to stream on CUSA.tv with a subscription.
With UTSA trailing Dallas Baptist by just a half-game in the Conference USA standings, this series has huge postseason seeding implications for both teams. D1Baseball.com is currently predicting that UTSA and DBU will both reach the NCAA Tournament.
In the standings, and in nearly every statistical category in the conference, the Roadrunners and Patriots sit right next to each other in the top two spots.
CONFERENCE USA BASEBALL STANDINGS
| TEAM | OVERALL RECORD | CONFERENCE RECORD |
| Dallas Baptist | 37-12 | 20-4 |
| UTSA | 36-12 | 19-4 |
| Charlotte | 24-23 | 13-10 |
| Louisiana Tech | 25-25 | 13-11 |
| Florida Atlantic | 28-21 | 12-12 |
| Western Kentucky | 27-22 | 12-12 |
| Middle Tennessee | 23-23 | 12-12 |
| Rice | 18-31 | 7-17 |
| UAB | 15-32 | 6-18 |
| Florida International | 18-30 | 5-19 |
Coming off a thrilling three-game sweep of Rice, the UTSA baseball team hosts Dallas Baptist this weekend. Photo by Vashaun Newman
The Roadrunners are at the top of the conference in the hitting and pitching categories, including first in batting average (.309) and second in earned run average (4.39). Simon Miller is first in the nation in ERA (1.36), 24th in the nation in wins (7) and fifth in the nation in saves (11). Antonio Valdez is third in the nation in triples (7) and Sammy Diaz is the third-toughest batter to strike out in the nation (22.3).
Dallas Baptist leads the conference in multiple categories, including doubles (106), ERA (4.26), home runs (89), runs (397), sacrifice flies (31), scoring (8.1), slugging percentage (.533) and stolen bases (101).
The good news for Roadrunner fans: UTSA has been magnificent at home this season, going undefeated (12-0) in conference play at Roadrunner Field. UTSA has also won all 11 of its three/four-game weekend series this season, including five series sweeps. Four of those weekend series sweeps came in conference play against Florida Atlantic, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee and Rice.
Before the third game of this weekend’s series, UTSA will recognize 14 seniors and 15 graduates for Senior Day. The Roadrunners will honor these 14 seniors: Valdez, Diaz, Josh Killeen, Leyton Barry, Robbie Maldonado, Garrett Poston, Josh Salinas, Shane Sirdashney, Drake Smith, Nick Crespo, Taylor Smith, John Chomko, Luke Malone and Daniel Shafer.
Stay tuned to UTSA Baseball’s Twitter and Facebook pages throughout the weekend for updates on game times.
