Fischer Kingsbery fans August Ramirez for the last out as UTSA defeats Texas State 11-9 at Roadrunner Field. https://t.co/hyCDEtJ4sq pic.twitter.com/0RpYgfa2F5
— Jerry Briggs (@JerryBriggs) May 1, 2024
By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
With the Texas State Bobcats set to travel to San Antonio for a meeting with the UTSA Roadrunners in baseball on Tuesday night, I knew I needed to conduct an archive search of news coverage from the last time the two old rivals played.
In the archives of The JB Replay, I found a video image that pretty much tells the story of how passionate this series has become.
It was a video (see the image above) that I shot at the end of UTSA’s 11-9 victory over Texas State at Roadrunner Field last April.
The clip shows UTSA pitcher Fischer Kingsbery, firing what appears to be a high fastball and fanning Texas State slugger August Ramirez for the last out.
As Ramirez swings and misses, the UTSA fans erupt in cheers. Kingsbery then does a spin move on the mound and pumps his fist. Suddenly, he rips the glove off his left hand and fires it at the feet of Roadrunners players streaming out of the dugout to congratulate him.
Asked immediately after the game about the show of emotion, UTSA pitcher Braylon Owens was quoted as saying, “Battle of I-35. I mean, they were chirping us. Like, their fans, they chirped us pretty good when we played at their place. We were just excited to beat ’em here.”
Almost a year has passed since that moment unfolded.
Kingsbery and Ramirez have since moved on in their baseball careers, so they won’t be on the field Tuesday night. Owens is still pitching for the Roadrunners and is pitching extremely well, but since he worked 10 innings last week, he probably won’t get into the game this time.
All that aside, it’s almost certain that fans from both schools will fill the grandstands and a highly-competitive game will break out in the 104th incarnation of the series. Texas State leads it 63-40, but the teams have split the last six meetings.
Some of those games, as the record shows, have been crazy. In 2022, for instance, the Bobcats won 14-12 in San Marcos. Seven days later, the Roadrunners flipped the script and rolled, 14-8, in San Antonio.
Last season, home runs were flying out of the park in all directions, and the Bobcats held on to win 14-13 in San Marcos, which likely explains all the emotion of the Roadrunners’ 11-9 win in the rematch.
UTSA coach Pat Hallmark suggested on his Monday morning zoom conference that the high scores and wild swings in momentum in recent games can be attributed to the timing of the games between programs that play in different conferences.
With Texas State in the Sun Belt and UTSA having recently moved from Conference USA to the American, the games between the two programs separated by about 50 miles of I-35 freeway have fallen during the middle of the week.
“You’re playing a Tuesday mid-week game (and) both of us are coming off of conference weekends,” Hallmark said. “(With) three games on the weekend, you’re using a lot of front-line pitching … In other words, you’re not going to save anybody for a Tuesday game when you’re in conference.”
Consequently, Texas State and UTSA hitters in recent times might have been a little more productive in the non-conference rivalry game after seeing higher quality stuff on the weekends.
“That might be what it is,” Hallmark said. “Whether you hit a little more, or you see some more base on balls … the free pass sometimes equates into runs. Hopefully, tomorrow, we can counter some of that and at least on our end, put up some zeroes.”
Recent games at Bobcat Ballpark or at Roadrunner Field have been emotional.
It’s only natural as players often times know each other from high school competition. They know each other from summer ball. The fans from both schools show up to sit in the grandstands where school pride and good-natured smack talk, as Owens suggested last April, tends to spice the atmosphere.
Such was the case last April when Texas State fans appeared to make up at least a quarter of the more than 1,000 in attendance jammed the modest Roadrunner Field. Hallmark, from his perspective, said he tries not to let it affect him as he manages the game.
“I don’t pay too much attention to it,” he said. “I got other stuff that I need to focus on. So, whether we’re at Disch-Falk Field (in Austin) or at our own ball park, I’m pretty absorbed and try to stay absorbed in the moment, and what I need to do to help us win.”
Even if coaches in both dugouts can block out all the noise, though, they likely can’t help get a little worked up when a four- or five-run lead dissolves in a matter of minutes and the crowd noise spikes.
This morning, I suggested on the zoom conference with coach Hallmark that these games with the Bobcats are a thrill for the fans. But for the coaches, they must get a little hairy as they attempt to make decisions during big rallies one way or the other.
“You sound like my dad,” Hallmark said, agreeing with the premise. “At the end of a game, it’s 14-12. He’s all jazzed up, and I’m tired. But, yeah, I think the fans like the run production.”
Records
Texas State 11-12
UTSA 19-7
Coming up
Texas State at UTSA, Tuesday, 6 p.m.