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The UTSA outfielder hit three home runs in one game as the Roadrunners overpowered Rice 16-4 in Houston. On the day, Keng had four hits and five RBIs. That game helped Keng earn national player of the week honors from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
Keng’s most recent homer came Friday night at Roadrunner Field in the second game of a Conference USA doubleheader against Southern Miss.
The junior from Deer Park is batting .333 on the season with 11 RBIs in 10 games.
Southern Miss has won the first three of the four-game Conference USA series. The series concludes with a single game Saturday at 10 a.m. at UTSA.
Southern Miss won Friday’s early game 13-9 in 10 innings in a game scheduled for seven innings. UTSA rallied back after trailing 8-4 to send the game to extra innings. Southern Miss had 19 hits including a three-run homer by Will McGillis in the top of the 10th inning.
UTSA took a 2-0 lead in the second game after Chase Keng hit his fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the first inning. Southern Miss scored eight runs over the next two innings on the way to winning 11-5. The Golden Eagles had nine hits including two third-inning home runs.
Southern Miss starting pitcher Hunter Stanley went seven innings and allowed one run on three hits with one strikeout and two walks.
UTSA scored its only run in the six inning. Griffin Paxton tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Dylan Rock.
Paxton had two of UTSA’s five hits. Kyle Bergeron had a hit to reach base for the 15th straight game.
On a night when UTSA’s pitchers struggled early, Fischer Kingsbery and Zachary Griggs combined to hold Southern Miss to one run over the final 5 1/3 innings.
Kingsbery pitched three innings and allowed one run on three hits with six strikeouts and three walks. Griggs pitched the final 2 1/3 innings and held Southern Miss scoreless and hitless with one strikeout and one walk.
The 6-foot-1 infielder from California started in all 15 games for the Horned Frogs in the covid-shortened 2020 college season.
He headed to San Antonio for the summer 2020 Texas Collegiate League season. Shepherd had four hits and five RBIs in the Flying Chanclas’ first six games of the season. He was later sidelined by an injury after taking a pitch off his hand.
Shepherd earned honorable mention All-Big 12 honors at TCU in 2019 – the last full college season.
This season the left-handed hitter is third among the Horned Frogs in batting at .316 with one home run, one triple and three doubles with seven RBIs in 14 games. His home run came in San Antonio at Roadrunner Field against UTSA.
* Stats from gofrogs.com/
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.
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.
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.
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’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.
UT-Arlington won the second game 2-1.
UTSA starting pitcher Luke Malone went seven innings and allowed one run on four hits with six strikeouts and no walks to get the win.
Roadrunners leadoff batter Griffin Paxton led the offense with three hits, three RBIs and two runs.
UTSA BATTING ORDER:
