The UTSA baseball team stepped off their 2010 campaign with a pair of wins at Roadrunner Field this past weekend.

The Roadrunners (2-0) were supported with quality pitching as UTSA was able to defeat Houston Baptist 9-2 on Saturday and 7-2 on Sunday.

Saturday’s game was highlighted by the performance of junior Matt Crocker. The left-hander from Kingwood, Texas pitched six innings, allowing six hits while giving up only one run and striking out six.

Crocker didn’t need much run support, but the Roadrunners delivered plenty anyway, totaling nine runseight within the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings. Junior second baseman Ryan Hutson went 2-4 with two RBIs and one home run while senior Lance Brown also went 2-4, adding two runs and one RBI. Casey Selsor and Ryan Dalton would also each add home runs to the Roadrunner offense on the first day of the season.

The Roadrunners would find themselves behind 2-0 going into the fifth frame on Sunday’s game against the Huskies. HBU lefthander Jamie Storey pitched a clean first four innings before giving up two runs off a Hutson double to left. That would be the last batter Storey would face, but relievers Stephen Nikonchik and Chase Hernandez would surrender five runs over the next 3.1 innings.

UTSA took the lead in the sixth off of a bloop-single from first baseman Jake Wood—the ball was playable, but HBU players had a difficult time reading the ball as the wind was a factor in the outfield.

UTSA added an insurance run in the seventh inning, before blowing the game open with a three-run eighth. Junior Matt Aguilar hit a base-clearing double to drive in sophomore infielder Matthew James, sophomore outfielder Jason Mohn and Hutson, who reached after being hit by a pitch.

Junior transfer Mike Pierce guided UTSA through the first four innings, giving up seven hits and two runs. Outfielder and pitcher Selsor would close the door on the Huskies as he took the mound in the fifth. Selsor, who homered in the season opener, pitched the final five innings, allowing only three hits while not giving up a run.

Starting pitchers on both days went no deeper than the sixth inning (6.0 innings for Crocker and 4.0 innings for Pierce); this enabled Head Coach Sherman Corbett to rest their arms while giving others the opportunity to take the mound.

The first two wins were important for Corbett and his team, particularly because the wins came at home .

“It gets us started well,” Corbett said of the first weekend of spring ball. “You want to play well at home and that was an emphasis coming into the season.” Corbett, entering his tenth season as head coach of UTSA, felt that the pair of wins was a positive way to begin the season but wasn’t ready to overlook the hard work ahead of him and his team.

“Getting comfortable at the plate,” was of emphasis Corbett said, “As well as we have some pitchers that didn’t throw [pitch in the two first games] that will need to throw this week to be ready for this weekend [UTSA vs. Indiana State Fri.-Sun] because there will be a lot more innings to play. We’ll be counting on them. We have got a lot to accomplish this week to get ready for Indiana State.”

UTSA opens the four-game set against visiting Indiana State (3-0) this Friday at 6 p.m.