TCU freshman Luke Boyers got to play close to home last week.
The outfielder from Champion High School in Boerne was in right field when TCU played on the road on Wednesday against UTSA at Roadrunner Field.
Boyers started 15 games so far this season and had at least one hit in 13 of those games. The 5-foot-11 switch-hitter is batting .352 and has walked six times.
At Champion, Boyers earned San Antonio Express News All-Area team honors. He holds Champion school record for career triples (21), RBIs (83), walks (66) and stolen bases (72).
Lefty-hitting Conner Shepherd drilled TCU’s only home run on a night that felt like it was made for right-handed batters to go deep.
Shepherd’s opposite-field blast down the left-field line in the fourth inning was part of a nine-hit attack by the Horned Frogs in a 6-3 victory over UTSA at Roadrunner Field on Wednesday.
UTSA got home runs by right-handed batters Nick Thornquist and Kyle Bergeron, but had only one other hit in the game. The wind was steadily blowing straight out to left field all night.
TCU is No. 11 in the NCAA rankings and No. 9 by Baseball America.
Shepherd, a senior from California, played for the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio during the 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. He started at third base for TCU on Wednesday. He is hitting .294 and Wednesday’s homer was his first of the season.
TCU’s Luke Boyers, a freshman from Boerne Champion High School, walked and scored in the first inning. The Frogs grabbed a 3-0 lead in the top of the first with two hits and a UTSA error. TCU led the rest of the way.
Jonathan Tapia is a junior at UTSA and has started six of seven games so far this season, hitting .350 and seeing action mostly at second base but also in the outfield.
Tapia played his high school ball not far from UTSA at O’Connor. He played in 44 games as a UTSA freshman in 2018 and 51 games as a sophomore in 2019. He also saw action in 15 of 17 UTSA games in 2020 in the covid-shortened season.
Tapia played in the 2020 Texas Collegiate League, starting the season in Victoria and moving to the Flying Chanclas de San Antonio later in the summer.
UTSA outfielder Ian Bailey is a grad student who returned to San Antonio after playing at Grambling. He is from Stevens High School.
Bailey has 13 hits and 10 RBIs and has scored nine runs through the Roadrunners’ first two series of the season. He hit home runs in back-to-back road games games against Sam Houston in UTSA’s opening series.
UTSA exploded for 18 hits including home runs by Chris Shull and Dylan Rock to beat UT-Arlington 16-1 on Sunday in the finale of a four-game series at Roadrunner Field.
Reece Easterling pitched the first six innings for UTSA to earn his first win of the season. He allowed one run on three hits with four strikeouts and one walk.
Shull and Rock both homered in the six inning. Joshua Lamb had three hits and four RBIs. Jonathan Tapia had three hits and scored twice.
UTSA won three of the four games over the weekend to run its season record to 5-2.
UTSA pitchers had a strong day Saturday as the Roadrunner split a doubleheader with UT-Arlington at Roadrunner Field.
UTSA’s Shane Daughety pitched a shutout and Dylan Rock, Ian Bailey and Austin Ochoa had key at-bats as the Roadrunners beat UT-Arlington 3-0 in 7 innings in the first game.
The Flying Chanclas de San Antonio’s season ended with a 7-3 loss to the Brazos Valley Bombers on Wednesday in Bryan in the Texas Collegiate League playoffs.
The Bombers will play for the TCL title on Saturday against either the Amarillo Sod Squad or Tulsa Drillers.
It’s been fun to watch college baseball players at Wolff Stadium over the last month. The Chanclas had lots of local talent. Both the Chanclas and the visiting teams had some top players from some of the big schools.
The Flying Chanclas de San Antonio had eight pitchers who appeared in at least eight games this summer.
Tyler Flores led the team with 10 appearances.
Connor Schmidt, Arturo Guajardo, Johnny Panatex and Garrett Egli had nine appearances each. Zach DeLeon, Matthew Sesler and Jaime Ramirez Jr. had eight each.
Guajardo led the Chanclas in strikeouts with 30 in 17 1/3 innings. Of the busiest relievers, Flores had the best ERA at 0.61, followed by Schmidt at 0.69.
– Tyler Flores, No. 16, 6-foot-1 left-hander from A&M-Kingsville and Clark High School
– Connor Schmidt, No. 10, 6-foot-7 right-hander from St. Mary’s and Devine High School
– Arturo Guajardo, No. 28, 6-foot-2 right-hander from UTSA and Laredo United High School
– Garrett Egli, No. 47, 6-foot-4 right-hander from Sam Houston State and Smithson Valley High School
– Johnny Panatex, No. 4, 5-foot-8 right-hander from St. Mary’s and Pflugerville High School
– Matthew Sesler, No. 40, 6-foot-5 left-hander from A&M-Kingsville and Harlingen High School
– Jaime Ramirez Jr., No. 14, 5-foot-11 left-hander from A&M-Corpus Christi and Holy Cross High School
– Zach DeLeon, No. 32, 6-foot right-hander from UTSA, UT-Rio Grande Valley and Hondo High School