New UTSA men's basketball coach Austin Claunch throws out the first pitch Tuesday afternoon before a Roadrunners softball game against the Baylor Bears. https://t.co/hyCDEtJ4sq pic.twitter.com/UkwN2WxYDi
— Jerry Briggs (@JerryBriggs) April 9, 2024
By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
On his first pitch at UTSA, new men’s basketball Austin Claunch threw a strike.
It came on a hot and muggy Tuesday afternoon in a ceremonial sequence just before the Baylor Bears played the Roadrunners in softball. The 34-year-old Claunch toed the circle and threw under-handed, just as they do in the women’s fast pitch game. His left-handed offering was true, and it appeared to be in the zone on the inside corner.
New UTSA men’s basketball coach Austin Claunch completed his duties as an assistant coach at the University of Alabama on Saturday when the Crimson Tide lost in the Final Four to the eventual champion Connecticut Huskies. – Photo by Joe Alexander
Claunch, who grew up in Houston, is in town fresh off a trip to the NCAA Final Four.
He worked for the past season as an assistant coach in the resurgent basketball program at the University of Alabama. The Crimson Tide, under head coach Nate Oats, marched all the way to the Final Four in Glendale, Ariz., where they lost in the NCAA semifinals Saturday to the UConn Huskies.
The Huskies beat the Tide 86-72 and then polished off the Purdue Boilermakers in Monday night’s NCAA title game.
At the end of UTSA’s season in March, the university elected not to renew Steve Henson’s contract, setting the stage for a new head coach to come in and take charge.
Four days after the Roadrunners were eliminated in the first round of the American Athletic Conference tournament, the university announced on March 17 that it had hired Claunch.
As one of the youngest Division I coaches in the nation, Claunch led the Nicholls State (La.) Colonels to 90 victories in five seasons and a couple of Southland Conference regular-season titles.
Claunch is expected to meet the media Thursday afternoon.
New UTSA men’s basketball coach Austin Claunch showed his stuff Tuesday afternoon by throwing out the first pitch. And, yes, he is a lefthander. – Photo by Joe Alexander