By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The ball is rolling downhill for the UTSA baseball program in terms of capturing the attention of its local fan base.

After San Antonio media blanketed the Roadrunners with coverage in last week’s trip to the NCAA Austin Regional, the players responded with a dynamic performance, sweeping to three straight victories, including two over the Texas Longhorns.

As a result, a crowd of people turned out on short notice for a welcome-home celebration on Monday.

Another crowd showed up Thursday when the team left Roadrunner Field for a trip to the Los Angeles Super Regional.

So, where is all this going?

Well, in the immediate future, the program is headed west for a best-of-three series against the UCLA Bruins, starting Saturday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

Coming out on top won’t be easy.

The Bruins are ranked as the 15th-best team in the tournament, and they have a player in Roch Cholowski who is among four finalists for the Dick Howser Award, college baseball’s version of the Heisman Trophy.

All that aside, UTSA is playing well, too. Correction. They are playing lights out. The Roadrunners beat the No. 2 overall seed in the Longhorns twice last week in Austin. So, they are hot, and they know how to get it done.

Given all that, what else is at stake this weekend for the most ascendant athletic program at UTSA, besides a trip to the Men’s College World Series?

Well, one enticing possibility is that the university decides to move forward with a plan to upgrade Roadrunner Field. Coach Pat Hallmark has been pushing that idea aggressively.

Another possibility is that UTSA continues on its current plan to enhance player training as its next project, without a concrete course of action on an enhanced competition site.

If that is the case, it seems that another baseball program on another campus could approach Hallmark with a better deal, and he might take it.

Why do I say this? Well, for one thing, Hallmark is a hot commodity. One of the hottest in this part of the country. His team is one of 16 remaining in the NCAA tournament.

In addition, he seems to be getting more antsy and more blunt when he discusses the need for a stadium upgrade. Specifically, one with more comforts for the fans.

He talked about it in mid-May with reporters after one of his last regular-season home games. The subject came up again in an interview Monday with radio talk show host Jason Minnix on San Antonio Sports Star, FM 94.1. Most recently, the subject was broached on Friday on the eve of his team’s first game at UCLA.

Asked on a media zoom conference if he could sense how the team has started to attract more and more attention from local fans in the wake of its success in Austin, Hallmark said he probably hasn’t grasped the situation in its entirety just yet.

“It’s a bigger deal than I anticipated, not that I knew we were going to be here,” the coach said. “But I knew we had a good team. I knew we had a shot when we officially got in the regional.”

Hallmark said “a lot of people are reaching out” in terms of fans who came out to Roadrunner Field on Monday and again on Thursday.

“People are pulling me aside, talking about a new stadium,” he said. “I have not heard that from UTSA. I’m not saying that. But I’ve never heard that from anyone, ever, in the city. From (anybody).“

The coach said he thinks people realize now that the program needs a better playing facility.

“What we’re doing this year (on the field) does not have to be an anomaly,” he said. “I’m not ready to say we can do it every single year. But we can do this more than not. This can become the goal every year, instead of some huge deal.

“Like, ‘Oh, my God. Look what we did.’ It doesn’t have to be that,” he said. “So, I’m ready to talk about this stadium as much as anybody wants to talk about it, because I want to stay in San Antonio.”

Asked for specifics on what he wanted on that front, Hallmark said he hopes UTSA officials can come up with a plan “for something” soon.

“I know it’s a huge, huge undertaking,” he said. “But that’s what we need, first and foremost, even above a bigger NIL budget and scholarships.

“You know, (with) baseball scholarships, this is the last year that they’re capped at 11.7 (per team). You’re allowed to have 34 scholarships next year. The NIL collective is a thing.”

But even before addressing those issues, he said his first priority “is and always has been” some kind of facility enhancement.

“It doesn’t have to be the Taj Mahal,” he said. “We need something so we don’t lose recruits and players, just something that says we care about baseball, and we are invested.

“When you, the baseball player at UTSA, overachieves (and) does what you are currently doing, we want to give back to you. That message needs to be sent by the people running UTSA.”

Otherwise, he said, the Roadrunners will lose players to their competition “and we don’t do this anymore.” Meaning, they’ll fall behind in terms of their ability to vie for championships in the years to come.

“If that’s what they want,” the coach said, “that’s what they’re going to get.”