By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The greatest season in UTSA Roadrunners’ baseball history has come to a painful end.
After losing Saturday and needing to win twice in two days to stay alive in the NCAA tournament, the Roadrunners couldn’t get it done. They couldn’t deliver with the big hit against excellent pitching on Sunday.
As a result, the 15th-seeded UCLA Bruins downed UTSA 7-0 to sweep two games at the Los Angeles Super Regional, advancing to the Men’s College World Series next week in Omaha, Neb.
“Similar to yesterday, I mostly tip my hat to UCLA, for playing clean baseball,” UTSA coach Pat Hallmark said. “They’ve got a lot of talent. They deserved to win.”
Run-scoring singles by Toussaint Bythewood in the fourth inning and Roch Cholowski in the fifth gave the Bruins a 2-0 cushion. The Bruins added two more runs in the eighth on an infield throwing error and a sacrifice fly by Phoenix Call.
To make matters worse, Roadrunners pitcher Braylon Owens had to exit the game with an injury during the uprising after he was hit with a line drive. In the ninth, the Bruins blew the game open with three runs against Gunnar Brown, who likely would have been the Game 3 starter on Monday if UTSA could have mounted a comeback.
UCLA pitching held UTSA to just four hits on a frustrating afternoon for the offense. The Roadrunners, who had multiple opportunities to score, hit only 1 for 13 with runners on base and 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position.
“Like coach said, they were playing some clean ball,” UTSA freshman Jordan Ballin said. “They weren’t throwing many balls. They weren’t walking us like they do. Other than that, we gave it our best shot.”
Regardless of setbacks to the Bruins on Saturday (by a score of 5-2) and again on Sunday, the Roadrunners left Jackie Robinson Stadium feeling some satisfaction in becoming the only team in school history to reach the super regional round.
“Obviously unhappy with the result,” said Conor Myles, who started and took the loss in the finale. “But, just happy for the guys, how far we made it. We set records. We broke almost every record that school has. It’s a special group of guys. It really is.”
Finishing with a 47-15 record, they won the American Athletic Conference regular-season title, notched their highest win total in 34 seasons and beat the in-state heavyweight Texas Longhorns three times, including two in the Austin Regional last weekend.
The Longhorns were the second-seeded team in the NCAA tournament, so the Roadrunners arrived in Los Angeles late last week brimming with confidence. They will leave knowing that the Bruins’ pitching and defense, in the end, were just too good to overcome.
“I did not anticipate making a super regional,” Hallmark said “I would be some kind of arrogant sociopath if I did. Which, I hope I’m not. But I did think we had a good team … I thought we had a good chance to win the league. I knew East Carolina lost some people, which was going to help us.
“I knew we had a good team once we got our hands on ’em and saw the athletic ability of (Norris) McClure. I knew (shortstop) Ty Hodge was physical and athletic, because he’s (from) closer to home. I knew we had a good team. But a super regional was above and beyond what I expected, there’s no doubt about that.”
Hallmark said he will always be grateful to have coached this team.
“Again,” the coach continued, “all the credit to the players. It’s all a coach wants. It’s improvement. Buy in. And it just kept coming. Not our best baseball this weekend, but it wasn’t ugly baseball. I really tip my hat to UCLA. When I first watched ’em, I thought … they might have a slight problem in their bullpen.”
Hallmark explained that his initial assessment was only based on how many players Coach John Savage pitched out of the pen.
“Usually the really strong bullpens are two guys who come in and really shove the ball down your throat,” the UTSA coach said. “Credit coach Savage. It’s not a chink. It’s not a hole (in the roster). He just has a lot of parts in that bullpen. And he’s such a great pitching coach. I didn’t realize it until I played ’em, but the bullpen is one of their strengths.”
Starter Landon Stump opened the game on the mound for the Big Ten Conference co-champions and worked four innings. Chris Grothues, Cal Randall, August Souza and Easton Hawk pitched in relief. Grothues (4-1) earned the victory by working two and two thirds innings, holding the Roadrunners hitless and scoreless.
All told, UCLA pitching struck out nine and walked two. Meanwhile, Myles (5-2) took the loss. The Australia native had good stuff but gave up the first two runs of the game and seven hits across four and two thirds innings.
Owens, meanwhile, was charged with two runs on three hits in two and a third. One of the standouts in last week’s Austin Regional exited the game with no outs in the eighth after he was hit by a line drive off the bat of Brennan.
The play started with a baserunner at second. Brennan smashed a pitch right back to the box, and it caromed off Owens and into foul territory.
First baseman Lorenzo Morresi fielded it and flipped it past Owens for a throwing error, allowing the run to score. AJ Salgado, who opened the inning with a double, came around to score.
At that point, it was determined that Owens wouldn’t be able to continue, so he got an emotional hug from Hallmark and then a rousing ovation from UTSA fans in attendance.
Later, Phoenix Call added to UTSA’s misery with a sacrifice fly to center, scoring the second run of the inning and widening the UCLA lead to 4-0. The Bruins added three runs in the ninth to clinch it.
Records
UTSA 47-15
UCLA 47-16
Schedule
UCLA advances to the College World Series, June 13-23, at Omaha, Neb.
Notable
UTSA finished with program records in wins (47) and fewest losses (15). They also had records in runs (528), RBI (487) and hit by pitches (125), according to the school’s information department.
Mason Lytle appeared in his 62nd game, a UTSA single-season record. Myles started his 17th game, tying him for second on the all-time single-season list
Owens reached 100 strikeouts on the season, becoming the second Roadrunner to reach the century mark. He finished second on the single-season leader board behind Karan Patel who fanned 104 in 2019.
UCLA pitching clamped down on UTSA’s three hottest hitters in the last game of the season. The Bruins held McClure, Lytle and James Taussig to a combined 2 for 12 at the plate. McClure and Lytle were one for four and Taussig zero for four.
Taussig, the most outstanding player in the Austin Regional, was held hitless in two games in Los Angeles.