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UTSA turns its attention to Tulane after eliminating FAU in the AAC baseball tournament

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Garrett Gruell broke down the plain-and-simple plans for the UTSA Roadrunners tonight in preparation for an early start on Saturday in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference postseason tournament.

“Just go to sleep a little bit earlier, drink some water,” Gruell told reporters on a zoom conference.

After eliminating the fourth-seeded Florida Atlantic University Owls Friday afternoon with a 6-3 victory, the No. 1 Roadrunners will face the Tulane Green Wave in a game that will start at 9 a.m. Saturday on the East Coast, 8 a.m. Central.

Tulane will need only one win to advance to the finals, while UTSA will need to win twice. A second game, if necessary, would be played later in the afternoon, following the AAC’s other semifinal.

UTSA is motivated for the rematch.

The Green Wave handed the Roadrunners their only loss of the tournament, hitting five home runs in a 10-6 decision Thursday at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.

In the aftermath, UTSA players apparently saw something that raised their ire.

“We’re going to come out with some fire,” Gruell said. “We don’t like getting beat, especially when you act like that afterwards, so we’re going to come out and put up a fight, for sure.”

A day after losing to Tulane, UTSA responded with a quality effort against a team that had won 37 games this season.

Though the Roadrunners had swept three games from the Owls in San Antonio in March, they knew their opponent had the talent to win, and they didn’t want to leave the tournament early.

In response, they forged ahead, improving to 44-12 on a remarkable season that by all estimations is expected to extend next week with an appearance in the NCAA tournament.

“I was proud of our team,” said UTSA coach Pat Hallmark, who claimed his 250th victory as a coach. “I thought we played nine innings. That’s critical in a tournament like this. You play every at bat. You play every pitch on defense, and you give yourself a chance to win when you do that.”

Trailing 1-0 after three innings, the Roadrunners scored two runs each in the fourth, the sixth and the eighth innings to take charge. Holding on to a 4-3 lead, their two-run eighth clinched it, when they came alive against FAU relief ace MJ Bollinger.

With one out, the Roadrunners strung together singles by Drew Detlefsen, Gruell and Diego Diaz. Diaz, a sophomore from Pharr, stepped to the plate with runners at first and second base and ripped an RBI single to center, scoring Detlefsen and sending Gruell to third.

After Steven Andrews replaced Bollinger, Jordan Ballin got into the game as a pinch runner for Gruell. Ty Hodge proceeded sacrifice with a bunt that scored Ballin and made it 6-3.

Rob Orloski, making his third relief appearance of the week, had one of his first pitches of the ninth drilled to third base. But Norris McClure gloved it and threw out the runner. Orloski retired the next two, ending the game.

UTSA pitching, including Conor Myles, Kendall Dove and Orloski, held one of the best offenses in the conference to nine hits. With runners in scoring position, UTSA hurlers were extremely tough, limiting FAU to a .111 average (one for nine).

Myles pitched five innings and held the Owls to two runs (one of them earned) on seven hits and no walks. A finesse pitcher, and a lefty, Myles threw 84 pitches, including 56 for strikes. He fanned three.

“He wanted to stay in,” Hallmark said. “He kind of pissed at me when I took him out. But the plan — coach (Zach) Butler and I go into every game with a script — and the script was Myles five, Dove two and Rob two. So, (Myles) was pitching OK but he wasn’t cruising, so despite his best efforts we stuck to the script.”

Dove ended up pitching one and two thirds, while Orloski went two and a third while throwing only 24 pitches, which could come in handy in the next two days as UTSA tries to add a postseason title to the one they claimed in the regular season.

Offensively, the Roadrunners had two-hit games from McClure, who extended his batting streak to 22 games, and Detlefsen. Gruell, playing for the first time in three games this week as the designated hitter, had a hit and two RBI.

The Roadrunners seemed to get better swings as the game progressed, a trait that they have exhibited many times this season, producing seven hits combined from the sixth through the eighth innings.

Hallmark said his team is good at adjusting to situations within games.

“It’s one of two things,” he said. “We do adjust. Most of our hitters are either older hitters who have been around, so once they see a pitcher. Or, if they don’t get the at bat, they see what’s happening. They pay attention. So they can make some adjustments.

“The other thing is, they tend to like the moment. A lot of our guys like the moment. (Mason) Lytle and (James) Taussig and Norris (McClure) — today it was Garrett Gruell. Garrett Gruell was huge for us today. I think they like the moment, and the moment is usually later in games.”

With six runs scored against FAU, the Roadrunners broke the AAC record for runs in a season with 499. They broke the previous record of 498 held by East Carolina last season.

Hallmark said he is looking forward to the Tulane game.

“I hope we play two,” the coach said. “I’d love to play a lot of baseball, and I hope it’s a dogfight and nasty and ugly and all that good stuff that we like.”

Records

Florida Atlantic 37-21
UTSA 44-12

Friday’s scores

Elimination games

UTSA 6, Florida Atlantic 3 (Florida Atlantic eliminated)
South Florida 7, Charlotte 6 (Charlotte eliminated)

Saturday’s schedule

Semifinals

Tulane vs. UTSA, 8 a.m.
East Carolina vs. South Florida, 47 minutes after the first game
Tulane vs. UTSA, if necessary, TBD
East Carolina vs. South Florida, if necessary, TBD

Sunday’s schedule

Finals, 11 a.m.

Notable

With the win, the Roadrunners improved to 2-1 in Clearwater and to 15-2 in their last 17 games. Their 44 wins on the season are a school record, breaking the old record of 39. Hallmark is now 250-156 in his career, including 66-48 in two years at Incarnate Word and 184-108 at six years at UTSA.

On opening day at the AAC tournament, they downed the Rice Owls, 4-2, on Tuesday on a combined two-hitter from starter Braylon Owens and Orloski. Tulane raked for 14 hits and five homers in a 10-6 victory on Thursday. Green Wave players who homered against the Roadrunners included Mattias Haas, James Agabedis III (who had two), Theo Bryant and Jason Wachs.

UTSA pitching held FAU to nine hits, including seven singles, a double and one homer — a solo shot by Carter Brady.

The top hitters for the Roadrunners in the tournament have included Mason Lytle (six for 11 with two home runs), Taussig (five for 11) and Norris McClure (five for 13). Lorenzo Morresi has three hits, including two doubles, and three RBI in his last two games.

Pitching leaders have included Owens, who struck out 11 while yielding two runs on two hits in five and two thirds innings in the opener, and Rob Orloski.

Orloski has been a workhorse in pitching all three games, giving up one run on two hits and one walk in six innings combined. He has struck out seven. One of the hits against him was a big one, a two-run homer to Jason Wachs in a decisive three-run inning for Tulane on Thursday afternoon.

Tulane wins 10-6 to cool off top-seeded UTSA at the AAC tournament

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The two-time defending tournament champions in the American Athletic Conference have worked their postseason magic once again. Fifth-seeded Tulane bashed a season-high five home runs Thursday in a 10-6 victory over No. 1 UTSA in a winners’ bracket game at Clearwater, Fla.

With a 2-0 record this week, the Green Wave have now won eight straight at this event dating back to 2023. As a result, they will advance into Saturday’s semifinals.

The Roadrunners, now 1-1 in the American Baseball Championship, will play Friday at noon (Central time) in an elimination game against the Florida Atlantic Owls. The winner will move into Saturday’s semis needing two wins against the Green Wave to advance to Sunday’s finals.

For the third straight year, Tulane has started the tournament with two straight wins. It’s one of the reasons their players call the BayCare Ballpark their home away from home.

“I would like to think of that as a body of work,” Tulane coach Jay Uhlman said. “It doesn’t always work out the way we’ve wanted it to work out in terms of volumes of wins. But I think the thing we do is, we teach through the wins. We teach through the losses. We teach through the tough times. Our guys believe.

“We’re like family. We have arguments and fights and disagreements. I don’t give everyone what they want all the time, and that’s a hard pill to swallow. But I think the body of work as you go through a season, the trust even in times when they don’t get what they want, that we’re doing everything we can the right way.

“It’s really important.”

James Agabedis III, a Tulane junior from Sudbury, Mass., hit two of the Green Wave’s homers. He blasted solo shots in the fourth and eighth innings. All the slugging backed the pitching of left-handed relief specialist Taylor Montiel, who worked three and two thirds scoreless innings to close the game.

Monteil (5-2) allowed only one hit and one walk while striking out four. Connor Kelley (3-1) was the losing pitcher for the Roadrunners.

Trailing for most of the game, the Roadrunners came to life in the sixth with three runs to tie. UTSA strung together four hits, including an RBI single by Caden Miller and a two-run single by Lorenzo Morresi.

Morresi’s liner with the bases loaded landed safely in center field, bringing in Miller from third and James Taussig from second to tie the score, 6-6. A key play unfolded when Nathan Hodge beat out a fielder’s choice, only to be erased on double play when Moressi was called for interference on a slide at second base.

The eighth inning was the undoing for the Roadrunners, who entered with a 14-1 record in their last 15 games. First, Agabedis homered off UTSA’s Kelley to break a tie and give the Green Wave a one-run lead. After Kelley was pulled for Rob Orloski, Jason Wachs blasted a two-run shot to make it 9-6.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark tipped his cap to Monteil, a redshirt junior from Brentwood, Tenn. At one point, Monteil struck out four batters in a row.

“He’s good,” the coach said. “He’s been doing that all year. If you look at his numbers, he doesn’t get hit. I think it’s something like, it’s well less than a hit an inning … He’s got that fastball that moves. A little bit on the frontside where he hides the ball. He throws hard.

“I didn’t expect to hit him real good. But I did think if we kept it tied or within one run that anything’s possible. The two-run homer (in the eighth) after the solo hurt us a little bit. That was a bad call. Rob executed the pitch. The call was a mistake. We called a high fastball – to a high fastball hitter.”

Hallmark said UTSA is one of the few teams in the nation that have the catchers call the pitches and that Andrew Stucky and Morresi do a great job in that part of the game.

“We just happened to make a mistake there,” Hallmark said. “(The high fastball) is Rob’s best pitch. So I knew why Stucky called it. He called his pitcher’s best pitch. So, I don’t know that it’s a mistake. But, Wachs is a good high fastball hitter.”

The coach said he’s more frustrated with the pitches early in the game from starter Zach Royse that were thrown in the middle of the plate. Royse gave up six runs on seven hits, including three home runs.

Records

Tulane 32-24
UTSA 43-12

Notable

If UTSA comes up short of the title this week in Clearwater, the Roadrunners remain a strong candidate to gain an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament based on their record (43-12), their regular-season title (23-4 in conference) and their No. 22 standing in the national rating percentage index coming into Thursday.

Since the AAC baseball conference formed for the 2014 season, each team that has won or shared a regular-season title has received a bid to an NCAA regional, either with an at-large or an automatic bid. UTSA clinched a share of the AAC regular-season title on May 4 after it swept a three-game road series at South Florida. It clinched the title outright on May 9 with a road victory at East Carolina.

When UTSA swept Rice last week in San Antonio to close the regular season, it secured victories in all nine AAC series on its schedule. Five of them were three-game sweeps. Moreover, they won the AAC by five games over second-place Charlotte.

By hitting the 40-win plateau on May 15 and reaching win No. 42 after the regular-season finale last Saturday, UTSA became only the seventh AAC team in history to take 40-plus victories into the conference tournament. The previous six all eventually received NCAA bids.

NCAA selections will be announced Monday.

Thursday’s results

Tulane 10, UTSA 6
East Carolina 6, Charlotte 5

Friday’s games

FAU vs. UTSA, elimination game, noon
South Florida vs. Charlotte, elimination game, 47 minutes after the first game

Saturday’s games

Semifinals
Tulane vs. FAU or UTSA, 8 a.m.
East Carolina vs. South Florida or Charlotte, 47 minutes after the first game
Tulane vs. FAU or UTSA, if necessary, TBD
East Carolina vs. South Florida or Charlotte, if necessary, TBD

Sunday’s game

Finals
Semifinals winners play in the title game, 11 a.m.

UTSA baseball continues its conference tournament title quest in Florida

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The top-seeded UTSA Roadrunners will take on the No. 5 Tulane Green Wave today at noon (Central time) in the winners’ bracket at the American Baseball Championship.

Later today, sixth-seeded East Carolina will play No. 2 Charlotte. While the losers will play on Friday, the winners will move into the semifinals scheduled for Saturday. The tournament is double elimination through the semifinals, while the a winner-take-all game in the finals is set for Sunday.

All games are being held at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.

Both Tulane and UTSA scored victories on Tuesday on the opening day of the tournament. After Tulane beat Florida Atlantic, 6-3, UTSA took the field and rallied for a 4-2 victory over Rice. Now they play today for a chance to move into the semifinals.

The champion of the American Athletic Conference’s postseason event in Clearwater will be rewarded with an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. If UTSA comes up short, the Pat Hallmark-coached Roadrunners remain a strong candidate to gain an at-large NCAA bid based on their record (43-11), their regular-season title (23-4 in conference) and their No. 22 standing in the national rating percentage index.

Since the AAC baseball conference formed for the 2014 season, each team that has won or shared a regular-season title has received an at-large bid to an NCAA regional. UTSA clinched a share of the AAC regular-season title on May 4 after it swept a three-game road series at South Florida. It clinched the title outright on May 9 with a road victory at East Carolina.

When UTSA swept Rice last week in San Antonio, it secured victories in all nine AAC series on its schedule. Five of them were three-game sweeps. By hitting the 40-win plateau on May 15 and reaching No. 42 after the regular-season finale last Saturday, UTSA became only the seventh AAC team in history to take 40-plus victories into the conference tournament. The previous six all eventually received NCAA bids.

NCAA selections will be announced Monday.

Tuesday’s results

(Opening day)
Tulane 6, FAU 3
UTSA 4, Rice 2
Charlotte 7, Wichita State 1
East Carolina 9, South Florida 4

Wednesday’s results

FAU 8, Rice 6 (Rice eliminated)
South Florida 4, Wichita State 3 (Wichita State eliminated)

Thursday

(Winners’ bracket, times are Central)
UTSA vs. Tulane, noon
East Carolina vs. Charlotte, 47 minutes after the first game

Friday

(Elimination games, times are Central)
FAU vs. Tulane or UTSA, noon
South Florida vs. East Carolina or Charlotte, 47 minutes after the first game

Saturday

Semifinals
UTSA or Tulane vs TBA, 8 a.m.
East Carolina or Charlotte vs. TBA, 47 minutes after the first game
Games to follow (if necessary) to complete double elimination

Sunday

Finals
First pitch, 11 a.m.

Top-seeded UTSA rallies to beat No. 8 Rice on opening day at the AAC tournament

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

After top-seeded UTSA rallied to beat the No. 8 Rice Owls 4-2 Tuesday on opening day at the American Baseball Championship, Roadrunners outfielder James Taussig vowed to take a fishing trip on an off day with some of his teammates, his brother and his father.

It’ll be on the aqua blue saltwater somewhere outside of Clearwater, Fla.

“We’re going to hit the redfish hard,” Taussig told ESPN.

Trailing by a run going into the bottom of the eighth at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, the Roadrunners started to hit the baseball pretty hard to stoke a game-winning rally.

The Owls had one out when starting pitcher Davion Hickson threw a curve on a 2-2 count that grazed Caden Miller in the leg, sending him to first base with a free pass. He promptly moved to third when American Athletic Conference Player of the Year Mason Lytle singled into center field, giving the Roadrunners men at the corners.

With one of the Roadrunners’ top hitters coming to the plate, Hickson knew he would need to pitch carefully. But Taussig, who was named first-team all conference in the AAC on Monday, stroked a fastball in the middle of the plate for a two-run double that allowed UTSA to take the lead.

As his line drive split the gap between the outfielders in right and center, Miller scored easily and Lytle, a speedster, made it all the way around, beating a relay throw to the plate with a slide to make it 3-2.

Later, Norris McClure sliced an RBI single into left field off reliever Garrett Stratton, bringing Taussig in to score and giving the Roadrunners a two-run cushion. Reliever Robert Orloski (8-0) shut down the Owls in order in the top of the ninth to secure the Roadrunners’ first victory in a conference tournament since 2022.

Hickson (2-7) pitched into the eighth inning and took the loss.

“Great comeback,” UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said on a zoom call with the media. “That’s the opening statement. These guys keep doing it. So, happy to be along for the ride.”

Pitching, in many ways, carried the Roadrunners and helped them improve on their program record with 43 victories this season. In winning for the 14th time in their last 15 games, the Roadrunners limited the Owls to just two hits.

Starter Braylon Owens yielded both hits and gave up two runs, one of them earned, in 5 and 1/3 innings. The senior from Elgin pitched out of trouble a few times and struck out 11. Orloski worked the final 3 and 1/3 innings scoreless on no hits. The 6-foot-4 sophomore from Idaho, a one-time draft pick out of high school by the Boston Red Sox, struck out three and walked one.

On the offensive side, Taussig and Lytle both went three for four at the plate. Lytle, a senior from Pearland, staked UTSA to a 1-0 lead in the first inning with a solo home run.

The Owls played small ball and scored one run in the fifth and one in the sixth off Owens to take the lead.

In the fifth, a leadoff walk led to trouble for Owens and UTSA. As Tobias Motley bunted in front of the mound, Owens fielded it and threw wildly into center field. It put runners at first and third with nobody out. At that point, the Owls bunted again to tie the score. Colin Robson laid down a sacrifice to score Cole Green from third base, making it a 1-1 ball game.

The opportunistic Owls scored again in the sixth to take a 2-1 lead. With one out, Hiram Bocachica walked and stole second base. One out later, Paul Smith singled up the middle to score Bocachica. Hickson finished with 7 and 1/3 innings and seven strikeouts. He gave up four runs on seven hits.

Records

Rice 17-39
UTSA 43-11

Tuesday’s results

Tulane 6, Florida Atlantic 3
UTSA 4, Rice 2
Charlotte 7, Wichita State 1
East Carolina 9, South Florida 4

Wednesday’s games

Rice vs. Florida Atlantic, noon, elimination
Wichita State vs. South Florida, 47 minutes after conclusion of first game, elimination

Thursday’s games

Tulane vs. UTSA, noon, winners bracket
East Carolina vs. Charlotte, 47 minutes after conclusion of first game, winners bracket

Notable

UTSA swept four games from the Owls in the past six days. The Roadrunners won Thursday, Friday and Saturday in San Antonio and again on Tuesday in Clearwater.

Roadrunners infielder Norris McClure was knocked out of the series finale in San Antonio with a leg bruise, but he bounced back and picked up two hits and an RBI as the designated hitter in his first Division I tournament game. With the two hits, McClure extended his batting streak to 20 games.

Speculation continues to swirl around the Roadrunners and whether their win-loss record and their RPI, at No. 22 nationally coming into Tuesday, will yield an NCAA tournament bid next week.

During the Rice game, television commentators were projecting that UTSA would be in the 64-team field when it is announced next Monday.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark, whose team has won road games at Texas and Texas A&M, said on the postgame zoom that he didn’t know whether his team would make it and, with the rest of the AAC event to play, he said he doesn’t care about the speculation.

“Obviously I want to play in the regional but I don’t control that,” Hallmark said. “I’m focused on the team and the opponent. I don’t mean that in a negative way at all. I just know these questions are coming. (Three) years ago when we were making a run, when we got that RPI pretty solid, these same questions were coming and they’re hard to answer.

“I’ve seen the basketball coaches. They give the spiels and politic. Not me. Like, we’re going to play ball, and I’m happy to be a part of this group. I don’t know the answer, and I’m not going to worry about it, honestly. I’m going to prepare for Tulane and celebrate a little bit with the guys.”

UTSA defeated Tulane two out of three in a series earlier this season in San Antonio.

Coached by Jay Uhlman, the Green Wave have advanced to the NCAA tournament in each of the past two seasons by winning the AAC postseason crown. In 2023, they entered as a No. 7 seed and won four out of five to win the championship. Playing as a No. 3 seed in last spring, they went 4-0, downing Wichita State 11-10 in the title game. Tulane improved its record to 31-24 with the victory over Florida Atlantic.

Top-seeded UTSA opens conference tournament today in Florida against No. 8 Rice

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The UTSA baseball team watches as the seniors are honored on Saturday. UTSA beat Rice 7-0 in the final game of the regular season at Roadrunner Field on Saturday, May 17, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

The UTSA baseball team opens play today in the American Baseball Championship. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners might well be the only team at the American Baseball Championship that could fall short of the conference’s postseason title and still get an invitation to the NCAA tournament.

Sitting at No. 22 in the ratings percentage index, or RPI, the top-seeded Roadrunners will tote a regular-season conference title and a 42-11 record into Tuesday’s opening game against the No. 8 Rice Owls.

It’s purely speculation, but if UTSA can beat Rice, and then tack on a couple more victories after that, they probably would stand a fair chance of gaining an at-large NCAA bid even if they were to lose in the championship game on Sunday.

But before traveling to Clearwater, Fla., where the American’s eight-team event will be played at the BayCare Ballpark, UTSA coach Pat Hallmark was asked if he had given thought about how many more wins he needed this week to secure the program’s first bid in 12 years.

He said he’s not really thinking in those terms.

“As much as we talk about expectations and playing a certain way, we don’t talk a ton about winning,” he said Saturday afternoon at Roadrunner Field. “Because, sometimes, winning is out of your control. We talk about the quality of the play. So, we’re going to try to go play quality baseball. Throw strikes. Swing at strikes.

“When we swing, we want ‘em to be violent swings. And then we talk about making one error or less in the field. That’s what we’re going to keep talking about, and if we do that, the wins will take care of themselves. Just like these 42 wins (in the regular season) did.”

UTSA hasn’t reached an NCAA tournament since the 2013 season, when the Roadrunners played in the Western Athletic Conference. They’ve been in contention in each of the past three seasons going into the 2022 and 2023 Conference USA tournaments and the 2024 American tournament.

But, each time, the Roadrunners failed to make the 64-team national field.

In 2022, at Hattiesburg, Miss., they entered as a No. 5 seed with 35 wins and won three straight games, beating the nationally-ranked, host-team Southern Miss Golden Eagles twice in a row, only to lose 9-8 in the championship game to Louisiana Tech. Even with 38 wins, a strong finish and an RPI of No. 37, it wasn’t good enough for UTSA to make the NCAA.

Two years ago, in their final season in the C-USA, they entered the tournament at Houston with 38 wins and high hopes. Though they were seeded second in the field, they dropped their opener to No. 7 Middle Tennessee, 5-1, and then lost again, falling 11-2 to No. 3 Charlotte.

Last season, in their first season in the American, they once again entered as a two seed but couldn’t hold serve.

Seventh-seeded Charlotte scored four runs in the top of the 12th inning and spoiled UTSA’s opener for the second year in a row, this time by a 9-5 count. Stunned, the Roadrunners had to play the next day and lost again, falling 12-5 to the FAU Owls.

With only 32 wins, their NCAA hopes were dashed.

This year, the Roadrunners have no intention of letting anything like that happen three years in a row. After winning the American title going away by five games over second-place Charlotte, they’re confident they have the best team.

In fact, outfielder James Taussig said that with 42 victories and wins over Texas and Texas A&M on the road, he “would hope” that UTSA would get an NCAA bid even if it were to go 0-2 again.

“I think our full season, our body of work, has shown that we’re a complete team and we can play in the postseason,” he said. “I don’t plan on going 0-2. I don’t think anyone out here is planning on going 0-2. We’re going to stay locked in and focused, because there’s another championship to win.”

In other words, winning the postseason crown will be just as much fun as taking home the regular season title, so that is the goal. “Exactly,” Taussig said.

UTSA catcher Andrew Stucky said last year’s disappointment in Clearwater will serve as motivation this time around.

“Yeah, definitely,” he said. “A couple of us have mentioned that, saying that it’s not going to happen again this year. But I think we’re going into it this year a whole lot more confident. Just in ourselves and each other. So, we’re really excited to go out there and just keep playing like we do.”

Records

Rice 17-38, 10-17
UTSA 42-11, 23-4

Coming up

AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., with top-seeded UTSA playing No. 8 Rice today. The tournament will run through May 25 at the BayCare Ballpark.

Tuesday, May 20

(All times Central)
Game 1: No. 5 Tulane vs. No. 4 Florida Atlantic | 8 a.m. | ESPN+
Game 2: No. 8 Rice vs. No. 1 UTSA | 47 minutes after Game 1 | ESPN+
Game 3: No. 7 Wichita State vs. No. 2 Charlotte | 3 p.m. | ESPN+
Game 4: No. 6 East Carolina vs. No. 3 South Florida | 47 minutes after Game 3 | ESPN+

UTSA’s Mason Lytle named Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference

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Mason Lytle makes a catch in center field. UTSA beat Rice 15-7 on Thursday night in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Mason Lytle prepares to make a catch in center field against Rice in a game played last Thursday at UTSA. Lytle was named Monday as the Player of the Year and also the Defensive Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference. – File photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA’s Mason Lytle, a .371 hitter who wowed fans by sprinting and sometimes diving or sliding to make catches in the outfield all season, has been named Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in the American Athletic Conference.

Pat Hallmark. UTSA rallied from an early 5-1 deficit to beat Florida Atlantic 10-7 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, March 28, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Pat Hallmark has been named Coach of the Year in the American Athletic Conference. – File photo by Joe Alexander

Unanimous choices for the Roadrunners on major awards included Lytle for Player of the Year and Pat Hallmark for Coach of the Year. Newcomer Position Players of the Year were UAB’s Todd Clay and UTSA’s Drew Detlefsen, who led the conference with 69 RBI.

For AAC coaches voting for the honorees, it was hard to ignore the Roadrunners, who dominated the league in the regular season, winning the title by five games over the second-place Charlotte 49ers. Top-seeded UTSA (42-11, 23-4 AAC) will play No. 8 Rice Tuesday in Florida to open the conference’s postseason tournament.

UTSA players making first-team all conference included outfielders Lytle and James Taussig, catcher Andrew Stucky, shortstop Ty Hodge and pitcher Robert Orloski.

Lytle, in his second year with the Roadrunners after transferring from Oregon, led the AAC in hits (86) and runs scored (67), ranked second in RBI (62) and third in batting average.

Making the second team were UTSA’s Detlefsen and freshman infielder Jordan Ballin from Boerne Champion High School. Ballin, Nathan Hodge and Caden Miller were named to the all freshman team.

Drew Detlefsen. UTSA beat Oakland (Michigan) 13-3 on Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander.

UTSA junior outfielder Drew Detlefsen led the American Athletic Conference in RBI during the regular season with 69. He was named Monday along with UAB’s Todd Clay as one of the AAC’s Newcomer Position Players of the Year. – File photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA throws a championship celebration after completing a series sweep of Rice

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Pat Hallmark-title celebration

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark (at right) poses for photos with his players in the team’s celebration for winning the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship. – Photo by Jerry Briggs

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA baseball coach Pat Hallmark may need to study some video on how football coach Jeff Traylor manages the championship celebrations.

Coaxed by his players to join them in a group on the field for a photo shoot on Saturday afternoon, Hallmark was ambushed by one of them wielding a bucket of icy cold water.

Cheers rang out after the splash soaked the coach, who looked up at a group of reporters and photographers, laughing and wearing a wide smile.

“It was cold,” Hallmark said. “I probably should have known it was coming. I guess it’s our first championship, so in the future, maybe I can dodge it like Jeff does.”

Considering that the Roadrunners clinched the American Athletic Conference regular-season title eight days ago in North Carolina, they had been planning to hold an official celebration on their home field since early this week.

The festivities seemed all the more sweet after they swept three games from the Rice Owls to close the regular season.

UTSA completed their ninth series victory and their fifth weekend sweep of AAC competition with an emphatic 7-0 victory over the Owls on Saturday.

Later, it was announced that the top-seeded Roadrunners (42-11, 23-4) would open the tournament Tuesday in Florida against the No. 8 Owls (17-38, 10-17). After sweeping Rice, UTSA improved to 13-1 in their last 14 games.

“Playing good baseball and winning games never gets old,” said Hallmark, a former Rice assistant from 2006-16 under Wayne Graham. “I’ve been over there wearing that uniform (of the Owls).

“It’s nice to beat everybody but it might be a little nicer to beat those guys, for me personally. I don’t think these guys (on the Roadrunners) care. The sweep is good. The wins are good.

“The most important thing to me is the quality of the play. I thought the first four innings on Thursday was not up to our standard, but the other 23 innings were UTSA baseball.”

On Thursday, the Roadrunners surprisingly came out flat and fell behind 7-0. They were getting out-hustled and no-hit through four innings.

But in the bottom of the fifth, the Roadrunners exploded for seven runs and went on to record their program record 40th victory of the season by a score of 15-7. They followed on Friday by winning 11-4 and then pitched the shutout in the finale for victory No. 42.

It was only the third shutout for UTSA this season and the first in a game that covered nine innings.

The next order of business is the AAC tournament, which runs through Sunday, May 25, at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater. The winner earns an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Even if Roadrunners don’t win the postseason title, they could earn an NCAA at-large bid. UTSA hasn’t played in an NCAA tournament since 2013.

Hallmark acknowledged the challenge of having to beat the Owls for the fourth game in a row in the tournament opener. He knows it will be tough considering the Owls are led by veteran coach David Pierce, a one-time assistant with Hallmark under Graham.

“David’s as competitive as they come,” Hallmark said. “He’s going to get ’em a little pissed off and they’ll be ready, and they still got (pitcher Davion) Hickson. He didn’t throw their best guy this weekend, so I’m sure he’s going to throw on Tuesday. We’re going to have to beat him, but we’ll be ready. We play really well, and we’ll be ready.”

Records

Rice 17-38, 10-17
UTSA 42-11, 23-4

Coming up

AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., with top-seeded UTSA playing No. 8 Rice on Tuesday. The tournament will run through May 25 at the BayCare Ballpark.

Tuesday, May 20

(All times Central)
Game 1: No. 5 Tulane vs. No. 4 Florida Atlantic | 8 a.m. | ESPN+
Game 2: No. 8 Rice vs. No. 1 UTSA | 47 minutes after Game 1 | ESPN+
Game 3: No. 7 Wichita State vs. No. 2 Charlotte | 3 p.m. | ESPN+
Game 4: No. 6 East Carolina vs. No. 3 South Florida | 47 minutes after Game 3 | ESPN+

Notable

UTSA third baseman Norris McClure is day to day after suffering a knee contusion in the top of the second of Saturday’s finale and having to come out of the game.

Hallmark said he thinks McClure, a .356 hitter, will play but will know more in a few days. The team will fly out to Florida on Sunday and will practice there on Monday.

Sitting at No. 20 in the NCAA’s ratings percentage index entering the Rice series, UTSA has now won three in a row and 13 of their last 14 going into the tournament. Extended, the Roadrunners are 17-2 in their last 19 games.

James Hubbard. UTSA beat Rice 7-0 in the final game of the regular season at Roadrunner Field on Saturday, May 17, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA starter James Hubbard pitched four scoreless, no-hit innings Saturday in UTSA’s 7-0 victory over the Rice Owls at Roadrunner Field. With the win, the American Athletic Conference champions finished the regular season 42-11. They’ll play Rice again Tuesday in the opener of the AAC tournament in Florida. – Photo by Joe Alexander

3 Mason Lytle UTSA Senior Day. UTSA beat Rice 7-0 on the final day of the regular season at Roadrunner Field on Saturday, May 17, 2025. - Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA centerfielder Mason Lytle is introduced with his family at Senior Day festivities. UTSA beat Rice 7-0 on the final day of the regular season. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Hallmark says that surging UTSA could make a run at the College World Series

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Nathan Hodge home run. His brother Ty Hodge is partially hidden behind him. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

Nathan Hodge (11) gets the ‘boom’ treatment from older brother Ty Hodge after slamming a two-run home run in the third inning. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Inspiring hope for a deep run in the NCAA tournament this season and for an improved fan experience in coming years, the UTSA Roadrunners just keep adding to their legacy as perhaps the best baseball team in school history.

Two weeks ago in Florida, they clinched at least a share of the regular-season title in the American Athletic Conference. Last weekend in North Carolina, they won the title outright.

Returning home to San Antonio this week, they opened their ninth and final three-game, AAC series against the Rice Owls, won the first game and set the school record for victories in a season.

UTSA starting pitcher Conor Myles. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA starting pitcher Conor Myles (5-1) earned the victory after pitching five innings. He allowed four runs on seven hits. – Photo by Joe Alexander

Now, a day later, they’ve taken yet another step in their journey. The Roadrunners jumped on the Owls early Friday night, scored five runs in the first inning off J.D. McCracken, and then kept on applying the pressure throughout the evening en route to an easy 11-4 decision.

UTSA is now 2-0 against Rice in the series leading into Saturday’s regular-season finale, meaning that they have effectively run the table, winning all nine of their three-game sets against AAC competition.

Brothers Ty and Nathan Hodge, who played shortstop and third base, respectively, led the charge against the Owls with three RBI apiece. Ty Hodge slapped a two-run single to highlight a five-run first inning and Nathan, the younger of the brothers from College Station, slammed a two-run home run in the third.

When his second homer of the season landed in the screen above the left field wall, the Roadrunners had built a 7-3 lead. The Owls cut the deficit to three runs in the middle of the game but couldn’t do much more than watch the Roadrunners pull away for their 41st victory of the season.

With the win, the Roadrunners improved to 41-11 on the season and 22-4 in conference. They have won 16 of their last 18 games and are 15-2 in their last 17 in the AAC.

UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said Friday night that he thinks the team has the potential to reach College World Series in Omaha, Neb. His statement came after a reporter asked if he thought that his program had reached a ceiling on what he believed it could achieve when he took the job back in 2020.

What the team has accomplished to this point in the season isn’t the ceiling, he said.

“This team can go to Omaha,” Hallmark added.

He said the Roadrunners will need to “keep being competitive hitters” and to identify maybe a few more reliable pitchers on the roster to help them maneuver through the AAC postseason and the first two weekends of the NCAA tournament.

“I don’t think we’ve reached our ceiling,” Hallmark said. “The ceiling is Omaha. That’s what we’re going for. We need to find a guy or two, like, the guys who are going to pitch tomorrow. We need to find three to six outs. Because with five guys? I don’t know if we can get through an entire regional with only five guys, which is what we’ve got now. We probably could. But that’s five guys who all have to pitch (well).

“Nobody can have a bad game, and that’s hard to do. It’s like hitting. All nine guys don’t (normally) have good games. So the ceiling is higher than what we’ve already done.”

With the AAC tournament starting next week in Clearwater, Fla., Hallmark suggested that the top-seeded Roadrunners shouldn’t put any limits on what they believe they can achieve. He said that at the start of this season, he would have been happy with the current results.

But he now sees this UTSA team as comparable in ability as Rice teams in 2006, 2007 and 2008 that reached the College World Series.

“This team can play offense with any of them, and defense,” he said. “And our top five pitchers are as good as some of them. But we may have been a little deeper on the mound on those (teams at Rice).”

Braylon Owens. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

Senior Braylon Owens pitched two and two thirds scoreless innings in his last game at Roadrunner Field. – Photo by Joe Alexander

UTSA is 20th in the NCAA’s ratings percentage index, or, RPI. The team is also ranked 25th in Baseball America, one of the prominent college baseball media polls. Playing at home, the Roadrunners have been nearly unbeatable this season. They’re 24-2 and riding a six-game winning streak at Roadrunner Field.

Fan interest in the team also is growing. Despite opening-pitch temperatures in the first two games of the Rice series hovering at 100 degrees, the grandstands and the outlying areas have been bustling with people, many of them hunkering down in the shade of trees on the left field side of the ball park complex.

Hallmark said it’s satisfying to see the uptick in interest compared to his first few games in the 2020 season.

“I don’t think much about it when the game is going on,” he said. “I’m kind of busy. But coach (Ryan) Aguayo and I talk about it, because we’ve been here the whole time, when there weren’t many people here besides the parents. And I still think there could be more.”

The coach suggested that modest improvements to the layout of the current facility could make it attractive.

“I think the footprint of the field is wonderful,” he said as he stood in the home team dugout, looking around at the compplex. “But if we can do some stuff back here with the entry-way (into the stadium) and even over here in the arbor … where all these trees are, if we can make that a little nicer with a deck and some nicer (grand) stands, people will come out here.”

He said he thinks baseball at UTSA can be self-sustaining financially if a little more can be done to make the fans feel more comfortable.

“Baseball is not typically a revenue-generating sport,” he said. “But I was at Rice University from (2005 to 2017) and we generated revenue. There’s no reason we can’t do that here. Besides the product on the field, we need to give them a comfortable environment to sit in and watch the game in shade and all those types of things, and I think it’ll come.”

Records

Rice 17-37, 10-16
UTSA 41-11, 22-4

Coming up

Rice at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m. (end of the regular season)
AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., Tuesday through Sunday, May 25

Notable

The Roadrunners will salute 10 athletes Saturday on Senior Day, including starters Mason Lytle, James Taussig, Andrew Stucky and Norris McClure. Also among the group are starting pitchers Braylon Owens and Conor Myles. Four others are Ty Tilson, Lorenzo Morresi, Garrett Gruell and Jake Cothran.

Ty Hodge. UTSA beat Rice 11-4 in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field on Friday, May 15, 2025. - photo by Joe Alexander

Ty Hodge had two hits in three at bats and drove in three runs as UTSA won its second game in two days against Rice. .- Photo by Joe Alexander

Crunch time: Every game down the stretch will affect UTSA’s NCAA chances

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Pat Hallmark. UTSA beat Rice 15-7 on Thursday night in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Coach Pat Hallmark’s UTSA Roadrunners are pushing for a strong finish to the season in hopes of securing a berth in the NCAA tournament. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

Lefthander Conor Myles will start for the UTSA Roadrunners Friday night against the Rice Owls as they attempt a nine-for-nine achievement in the American Athletic Conference.

In other words, the AAC’s regular-season champions are playing their ninth and final conference series of the season, and they’re hoping to run the table and win them all.

Roadrunners coach Pat Hallmark said it’s an important goal to achieve, but he said it’s at least equally important that they win Friday and also Saturday, if possible, to bolster their hopes of a berth in the NCAA tournament.

“That’s where the wins matter a lot,” Hallmark said. “We’re trying to keep ourselves in a position to kind of push that (NCAA) at large (bid possibility). People keep telling us we’re in, and that’s awesome. But three years ago we thought we were in, also. It’s always on our mind. So, yeah, we’d like to win the series because of that and to win every conference series.”

After UTSA rallied from a seven-run deficit to down Rice Thursday night, 15-7, the two teams are scheduled to play again Friday at 6 p.m. and again on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Roadrunner Field.

UTSA (now 40-11 and 21-4 in the AAC) entered the Rice series at No. 20 in the NCAA’s ratings percentage index, or, RPI. They remained 20th when the new RPI was published after Thursday night. It’s a good place to be in terms of the team’s hopes to reach the 64-team NCAA tournament.

But it’s also worth wondering what a loss to Rice or even two more losses might mean for the team’s long-term goals.

That is apparently why Hallmark mentioned the heartbreaking end to the team’s season three years ago. After winning on the road twice at nationally-ranked Southern Mississippi in the 2022 Conference USA tournament, and then losing to the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs in the finals, the Roadrunners settled in at No. 37 on the RPI and did not get an NCAA invitation.

The coach obviously hopes to avoid something like that this season.

If, say, the Roadrunners were to lose twice to Rice in the next few days and then lose the first two games of the AAC tournament next week in Florida, what would happen to their RPI? How far would they fall? How would the NCAA tournament selection committee view a non-power conference team that won eight straight AAC series and won 40 games, but then failed to finish strong?

Thinking about the team’s future in terms of a worst-case scenario also invites speculation on how much UTSA gained Thursday night by coming from behind to win. As it turned out, Rice (17-36, 10-15) actually ascended three spots on the RPI, moving up to No. 209, by collapsing and losing to the Roadrunners with 10 walks and three errors.

If Rice actually advanced in the RPI with such a dispiriting loss, how far would UTSA have fallen if it had failed to rally? Perhaps thinking back to what happened in 2022, Hallmark clearly was upset with his team’s lack of urgency in the first few innings.

“We were down 7-0 and getting no-hit,” he said. “I was frustrated. I didn’t think we were playing well. We were playing (passively) … I just thought we were playing a little soft, a little bit weak. Which boiled down to one or two reasons. Either we were a little arrogant coming out here slightly cocky, slightly arrogant. Or, we were playing like we didn’t want to mess up.

“I’m not sure which, but that’s the way we were playing, so I just kind of told them, this isn’t the way we play. We’re down seven nothing at this point. I said, ‘We might not win this game, but let’s try to play baseball (aggressively). If we screw this up and make a bunch of of mistakes, we need to make ’em aggressively, so, we were fortunate.

“Their pitcher walked us a little bit, but, some of those walks, you got to earn them, too. But that helped us … You could see the momentum shifting.”

After the Roadrunners rallied to win going away, Hallmark reflected on reaching the 40-win milestone, a first for a program that won 39 games in both 1994 and 2008.

“I’m proud of the team,” he said. “I tell everyone that will listen at this point, these kids are wonderful. They’re wonderful people. They’re good at baseball. I’ve been part of other good baseball teams. But the difference in this team is the quality of the person … wonderful. It’s hard to get on ’em. Actually had to motivate myself in the fourth inning to get a little pissed at ’em, the way we were playing, because I like ’em so much.

“I usually have no problem getting on people. They’re a bunch of good people, and I’m lucky to get to coach ’em.”

Records

Rice 17-36, 10-15
UTSA 40-11, 21-4

Coming up

Rice at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Rice at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m. (end of the regular season)
AAC tournament, at Clearwater, Fla., starting Tuesday.
The tournament runs through next weekend, with the finals on Sunday, May 25.

Notable

The only team in the AAC assured of a bid to the NCAA tournament is the winner of the conference’s postseason event in Florida. Eight of 10 AAC teams will qualify, and the Owls are one of them, so they are still in contention for that NCAA automatic bid. UTSA is likely the only team in the AAC with a shot at an at-large bid. As the UTSA coach has noted, speculation is that the Roadrunners are in good shape to be in an NCAA regional. But if the Roadrunners come up short of a title in Clearwater, their fate would be up to a selection committee. That is why it’s so important for them to win Friday and Saturday, if possible.

UTSA wins its 40th game of the season to set a school record after rallying to down Rice, 15-7

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Norris McClure slides safely into home to tie the game 7-7 on Drew Detlefsen's three-run double in the fifth inning. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Norris McClure slides safely into home to tie the game 7-7 on Drew Detlefsen’s three-run double in the fifth inning. – Photo by Joe Alexander

By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

UTSA baseball established a program record with its 40th victory of the season on Thursday night at Roadrunner Field.

The Roadrunners did it when they rallied from a seven-run deficit to down the Rice Owls 15-7 in the opener of the last series of the regular season. The teams are set to play again Friday and Saturday at UTSA.

Down by a 7-0 score and hitless through four and a third innings, the Roadrunners started to come alive when freshman Caden Miller slammed a solo homer with one out in the bottom of the fifth. Miller’s blast over the right field wall broke up the no-no and propelled UTSA to a seven-run inning.

After the home run, Diego Diaz struck out swinging, giving Rice starter Jackson Blank an opening to limit UTSA to just one run. But it was not meant to be for Blank or the Owls, as Garrett Gruell reached base on an infield throwing error.

After that, the wheels came off for the Owls.

First, UTSA’s Jordan Ballin drew a walk from Blank, who was then pulled out the game by Rice coach David Pierce. Reliever Garrett Stratton entered and had no better luck, as he walked Mason Lytle to load the bases. Stratton, coming unraveled, proceeded to walk both James Taussig and Andrew Stucky in succession to force in a runner each time.

Next, Stratton threw a curve ball that got away from him and he hit Norris McClure on the leg, forcing in another run to pull UTSA within three. At that point, Drew Detlefsen took advantage of the situation and drove a ball to right field for a three-run double to tie the game, 7-7.

The Roadrunners added three more runs in the sixth and five in the seventh to turn it into a runaway.

With the victory, the Roadrunners improved to 40-11 overall and 21-4 in the American Athletic Conference. After UTSA started baseball in 1992, the team won 39 games in its third season of existence, in 1994, and won 39 again in 2008.

Under Coach Pat Hallmark, the Roadrunners won 38 in both 2022 and 2023 before breaking through this season with a team that just refuses to fold when it’s faced with adversity.

“We just have some tough people,” Hallmark said.

In the last month, the Roadrunners have steadily pulled away from the pack to become the dominant team in the American Athletic Conference. They’ve posted a 15-2 record in their last 17 games overall, including 14-2 in conference play.

They got so hot they clinched at least a share of the AAC title on May 4 at South Florida and then won it outright last Friday on the first night of a three-game series at East Carolina.

The title is UTSA’s first in 17 years, and the Roadrunners will be the No. 1 seed in the AAC tournament next week. But first, they want to close out the regular season the way they have played all year — by winning.

Miller said he wants to win the next two games for the seniors who will be playing their last few games at home.

“A lot of them took us under their wing,” Miller said. “Mason Lytle, James Taussig, Andrew Stucky, and many other guys … It’s really huge to have guys like that who have been here and have played college baseball for three to five years. And, you know, you come out here, and you’re able to talk to these guys like you’ve known ’em forever.

“It’s very helpful and it’s very exciting to have guys like that who have done this. We’re able to talk to them about what’s going on, how things are going. Yeah, I want to send these guys off with a bang. Send them off with a series win this week at the Bird Bath one last time.”

Records

Rice 17-36, 10-15
UTSA 40-11, 21-4

Coming up

Rice at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Rice at UTSA, Saturday, 1 p.m.

Notable

UTSA set two other records Thursday night. First, Ballin established the program’s freshman mark for walks in a season with 37. Ryan Arevalos set the previous record of 36 in 1992. In addition, the team set the record for most RBI in a season with 431. Coming into the Rice game, the Roadrunners were tied for the previous mark of 419, set originally in 2008.

Miller finished the game three for five at the plate with two runs scored and an RBI. Garrett Gruell had one hit in four at bats with a run scored and two RBI. Two hitting streaks were extended, by Taussig (to 18 games) and by McClure (to 17 games).

As for the UTSA pitching, starter Zach Royse had a tough day, allowing seven runs on eight hits in four innings. Royse gave up three home runs, including a three-run blast to Landon West in the first inning, a Paul Smith solo shot in the second and a three-run blow by Cole Green in the fourth. Green’s blast gave the Owls a 7-0 lead.

Replacing Royse, Sam Simmons (1-0) earned his first victory of his UTSA career by pitching two scoreless innings of relief. Rob Orloski and Kendall Dove blanked the Owls the rest of the way, with Orloski striking out four in 1 and 2/3 innings. Dove fanned two in 1 and 1/3.

When Dove entered to pitch in the eighth inning, Orloski didn’t leave the game. He stayed and played left field. He remained in left through the ninth inning, giving UTSA the opportunity to bring him back to pitch if necessary. It’s the second time in eight days that UTSA has used Orloski as an outfielder after a relief pitching appearance.

For the Roadrunners, it’s an experimentation on strategy to prepare for an occasion in the postseason when they might need to have the hard-throwing righthander pitch at different times of the game. Orloski did just that against East Carolina, pitching in the seventh inning, coming out to play the outfield for a time in the eighth and then re-entering when the Pirates rallied.

Rice pitcher Davion Hickson was a surprise scratch from the lineup. “He just wasn’t ready,” a Rice spokesman said. Hickson had been pitching well as the team’s Friday night starter, giving up only five runs in 24 and 2/3 innings over his last three starts. On May 2, the junior righthander pitched a nine-inning complete game shutout against Charlotte, allowing only one hit and three walks while striking out nine.

Robert Orloski. UTSA beat Rice 15-7 on Thursday night in American Athletic Conference baseball at Roadrunner Field. - Photo by Joe Alexander

Robert Orloski struck out four in 1 and 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. He yielded just one hit. – Photo by Joe Alexander