Tag Archives: Caden Miller

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

UTSA baseball bolsters title hopes with an 11-5 victory over South Florida

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

First-place UTSA is trying to run away from the rest of the field in the American Athletic Conference.

Freshman Caden Miller slammed a pinch-hit grand slam to highlight a five-run seventh inning Friday night as the Roadrunners rallied to down the South Florida Bulls 11-5 in the opener of a three-game series in Tampa.

Miller, a first-year college player from Madisonville in East Texas, finished the game with five RBI. While the prolific UTSA offense produced 14 hits, starting pitcher Zach Royse (7-4) secured the win and reliever Rob Orloski picked up his fourth save. Orloski worked three innings, allowed no hits and no walks, and struck out three.

With the victory, the Roadrunners (35-10, 16-3) increased their lead to four games with eight to play in the AAC regular season.

UTSA stretched its advantage to four games over South Florida and to five over the Charlotte 49ers, who also lost Friday night, falling to the Rice Owls in Houston. UTSA will play South Florida on Saturday with a chance to win its seventh AAC series in seven tries.

Even though the Roadrunners scored the first run of the game, the Bulls answered with two in the second and two in the third against Royse to take charge. They held the lead for five innings as left-handed starting pitcher Corey Braun kept the AAC’s most explosive offense in check.

Braun struck out 10 and walked one in six and a third innings and left the game in the midst of the seventh with a 5-3 lead, with one out and runners at first and third. As Braun looked on from the dugout, things started to unravel for the home team.

Against hard-throwing righty Landen Yorek from Spring, Texas, UTSA’s Ty Hodge drew a walk to load the bases. Later, with Jordan Ballin at the plate, Yorek continued to struggle, firing a wild pitch that allowed a run to score.

Next, he hit Ballin, just grazing the batter’s elbow, to load the bases. In response, Yorek steadied himself and struck out Norris McClure. One out away from escaping trouble, he sized up the situation as Miller came off the bench to pinch hit.

One of UTSA’s standout first-year players, Miller responded by re-directing a pitch from Yorek on a high arc toward the right field wall. Ultimately, it left the ball park easily, giving the Roadrunners an 8-5 lead.

The Roadrunners tacked on three runs in the ninth to salt away their sixth win in a row and their 35th of the season. The school record for wins in a season is 39. Including a non-conference road test at Incarnate Word next Tuesday, the Roadrunners have nine to play before the AAC tournament.

They’ll play three at East Carolina next weekend, followed by three at home against Rice from May 15-17.

Correction: An earlier version of this story, which was based on running statistics from the game site, mis-identified the winning pitcher. Zach Royse earned his seventh win and Robert Orloski his fourth save, according to statistics posted later on both the UTSA and AAC websites.

Records

UTSA 16-3, 35-10
South Florida 12-7, 24-19

Coming up

UTSA at South Florida, Saturday, 1 p.m.
UTSA at South Florida, Sunday, noon
UTSA at Incarnate Word (non conference), Tuesday, 2 p.m.

Notable

UTSA entered the weekend at No. 26 nationally on the NCAA’s ratings percentage index, or, RPI. South Florida came in at No. 93.

UTSA hasn’t won a regular-season title in baseball in 17 years. The Roadrunners won back-to-back Southland crowns in both 2007 and 2008 under coach Sherman Corbett. Also in 2008, they posted a record of 39-19 for the most wins in a season in school history.

They haven’t played in an NCAA tournament since 2013, when they won the Western Athletic Conference tournament and played in the NCAA Corvallis regional under coach Jason Marshall.

As the Roadrunners played for the first time in Tampa against South Florida, Drew Detlefsen and Hodge both paced the Roadrunners’ offense with three hits apiece. Detlefsen powered a two-run homer to center in the fourth inning to bring UTSA within 4-3. It was Detlefsen’s second homer in as many games and his team-leading 13th of the season. Hodge had two singles and a double and scored twice.

James Taussig’s streak of games with home runs ended at four, but he finished with two hits and two RBI. His single to left brought home the last two runs of the game in UTSA’s three-run ninth.

AAC standings

UTSA 16-3, 35-10
South Florida 12-7, 24-19
Charlotte 11-8, 26-19
FAU 10-8, 29-15
Tulane 10-8, 27-18
East Carolina 10-9, 26-20
UAB 7-12, 23-23
Rice 7-12, 13-33
Wichita State 6-13, 14-30
Memphis 5-14, 17-28

A UTSA freshman makes the most of his last at bat in Arlington

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By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

The UTSA Roadrunners will close out a stretch of four straight road games to start the season today in Waco against the Baylor Bears.

They’re expected to face freshman lefthander Carson Bailey, who throws heat with velocity in the mid-90s, so the Roadrunners will need to be on top of their game. First pitch is at 3 p.m..

Reporters had a chance to chat on Monday’s media zoom call with Roadrunners coach Pat Hallmark, whose team lost its first two at UT Arlington last weekend before rebounding to win 6-3 on Sunday afternoon. A highlight of the Roadrunners’ first victory of the season came in the top of the eighth inning.

Down 3-2, they scored four runs to take the lead, with the big blow coming off the bat of a freshman playing in only his third college game.

Who is this freshman? Caden Miller is his name. A small-town guy, he attended high school in East Texas in the town of Madisonville, with a population of a little more than 13,000. Madisonville High School, about 90 miles north of Houston, has about 650 students total in grades 9-12.

Competing at the Class 4A level, the 6-foot-2 Miller honed his skills, showing enough ability with the bat to play his way into some high-level summer programs.

Hallmark said Miller’s summer ball team was one of the best in the state. “He’s facing some of the best pitching, playing in the top tournaments nationally,” the coach said, “so he’s seen good pitching.”

Miller’s arrival at UTSA in the fall was an unexpected pleasant surprise for the UTSA coaches.

“He’s a terrific player and a good get for us,” Hallmark said. “He was actually going to (Houston Christian University), I think, with the relationship (he had) with Lance Berkman. When Lance resigned (as coach) last summer, Caden opened his recruiting back up, and we were able to get him over here.

“So he was a fairly big recruit, certainly a big recruit for us. Happy to have him. He has some hitting talent. He has more raw hitting talent than most of the recruits we get.”

Miller, who sets up with an open stance from the left side, suffered through a bit of a rocky start at the plate in his first two games for the Roadrunners.

Batting leadoff, he went hitless in his first seven appearances and struck out three times combined in 5-0 and 7-4 losses on Friday and Saturday.

“He was a little antsy,” Hallmark said. “You probably saw (it), he was hitting in the leadoff spot Friday and Saturday (and) he was just antsy, a little jumpy up there, and he wasn’t getting real good looks at pitches.

“He was chasing more pitches than he ever chases. That’s one thing he does really well, which is why I hit him in the leadoff spot. He controls the strike zone terrifically, especially for a freshman. But, anyway, he settled down Sunday.”

Batting seventh in the series finale against the Mavericks, he walked in his first appearance in the second inning and then lined a grounder to first, which was turned into a double play, in the fourth. When Miller returned to the dugout, Hallmark told his young charge that his swing looked good.

He told him to stay with it. In the sixth inning, his approach paid dividends, and he singled through the right side. Coming up again in the eighth, UTSA had tied the game 3-3 on a Tye Odom RBI single, and Andrew Stucky had just flied out deep into the outfield, pushing Roadrunners on the bases to second and third.

In a lefty on lefty confrontation, Miller barreled a Kyle Winkler pitch high and deep to center. Ultimately, it caromed off the batters’ eye for a three-run homer. A jolt of energy surged through a visitors dugout that had not had much luck to that point.

“I thought he had a good at-bat on the groundout to first,” Hallmark said. “Kind of ironic, I told him after that at bat, just stay where you’re at. You’re swinging the bat good. The three-run homer came later.”

Just in time to save the Roadrunners’ opening weekend.

Coming up

UTSA at Baylor, today, 3 p.m.
Long Island at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Long Island at UTSA, doubleheader, noon
Long Island at UTSA, Sunday, 11 a.m.

Records

UTSA 1-2
Baylor 3-0