By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

AUSTIN — The UTSA Roadrunners have played in only four NCAA regional baseball tournaments, compared to 62 for the Texas Longhorns.

The Roadrunners have competed in baseball for 34 seasons, and the Longhorns, by comparison, have appeared in the College World Series a record 38 times. UTSA plays in a facility in San Antonio that doesn’t measure up to many anywhere, at any level, while Texas plays at Disch-Falk Field, one of the most iconic venues in the NCAA.

In that regard, after the Roadrunners swept three games to win the Austin Regional, including two straight over the Longhorns, it wasn’t surprising that Pat Hallmark was asked if he thought he had just shocked the world.

“I don’t know,” UTSA’s sixth-year head coach said. “Maybe the college baseball world, a little bit. I don’t want to go too much into that, but we’ll shock the world when we win the whole thing. That would shock the world. But, like (UTSA outfielder James Taussig) said (Saturday) night, he said, ‘Three more (wins) to Omaha.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, he’s right.’ And he said tonight, ‘Two more.’

“So, I don’t know if we (have) shocked the world or not. We surprised a few people. But people that have seen us all year, these guys (in the San Antonio media) that have seen us all year, I don’t know that they are totally shocked. Again, we beat the Longhorns. I did not know we were going to do this. I knew we had a chance.

“But, (Texas’) Jim Schlossnagle is an amazing coach, and this is the University of Texas, so … ”

So, yes, the Roadrunners surprised many in Hallmark’s profession by what happened here in the last 72 hours. In succession, they downed Kansas State, Texas and Texas again. Three straight victories over teams in Power 4 conferences, and they capped off the run with a 7-4 victory Sunday night in the regional finals.

As a result, the Roadrunners advance to meet the NCAA tournament’s 15th-seeded UCLA Bruins in the Super Regional round.

UTSA will play this weekend in Los Angeles at UCLA’s Jackie Robinson Stadium. The series is best of three, with the winner earning a trip to Omaha, Neb., for the Men’s College World Series. Schlossnagle, whose team was the No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA tournament at large, told reporters that UTSA is capable of winning in the super regionals and then making a run at the eight-team MCWS.

“Congratulations to UTSA,” Schlossnagle said. “As I told coach Hallmark at home plate, that’s not a fly-by-night team. That’s a real team. That’s an Omaha-caliber club in every way.

“They play a lot of different brands of baseball. They can pitch. Like I said the other night, they have a persona about ’em. A winning persona. We gave ’em too many free bases there in one inning. (Ty) Hodge got the big two-out hit. We just didn’t bunch our hits. We didn’t have some balls fall in. (Mason) Lytle made an awesome play in center field.

“I was proud of the way our guys competed. We’re pretty banged up, which every team is. Really proud of our team. As I just told ’em, no disrespect to teams in the past, but this is the first (Texas) team that’s ever had to play through the SEC (the Southeastern Conference). To be an SEC champion and to host a regional…We all understand Omaha is where we want to (finish). We were 44-14 in our league. It doesn’t make it a bad season.”

UTSA, on the other hand, will carry a somewhat mind-boggling 47-14 record into Los Angeles.

Norris McClure hit a two-run home run and Hodge had a three-run double early to back the pitching of starter Gunnar Brown as the second-seeded UTSA Roadrunners beat the No. 1 regional seed Longhorns for the third time this season.

With the latest win, the Roadrunners clinched a regional title and qualified for the super regionals for the first time in their history. Before this season, UTSA had never won more than 39 games in a season and had finished 0-2 in three previous trips to the regional round.

The Roadrunners jumped on the Longhorns in the first inning to get off to a fast start. After Taussig drew a one-out walk, McClure smoked a line drive off Hudson Hamilton that sailed over the right field wall for a two-run homer. Hamilton was making his first start of the season. When McClure’s homer landed somewhere on Comal Street outside of “The Disch,” UTSA had a 2-0 lead.

For the Longhorns, the bottom of the third was pure agony.

The Roadrunners bunched two singles and two batters hit by pitch for a 3-0 lead. Officials reviewed when UTSA’s Jordan Ballin was plunked, apparently to see if he leaned into it, but he original call was upheld and Ballin had himself an RBI. At that juncture, Texas made a pitching change, bringing in Max Grubbs.

Grubbs, one of the Longhorns’ top arms out of the bullpen, found immediate trouble when Hodge drilled a ball to center field. It carried past the centerfielder, all the way to the wall, and the Roadrunners scored three runs on the play. After Andrew Stucky was hit by a pitch, Mason Lytle stroked an RBI single through the left side.

UTSA had its fifth run of the inning and a 7-0 lead.

Pitching and defense also emerged as highlights in perhaps one of UTSA’s biggest moments in the history of its athletic department.

After the Roadrunners had used weekend starters Zach Royse, Braylon Owens and Conor Myles on Friday and Saturday, coaches called on Brown, who was making only his fourth start of the season. He entered the national spotlight with a 7.85 ERA. Brown, from Episcopal High School in Houston, earned the victory and improved his record to 4-2 with five innings of work. He allowed only one run on six hits, walking two and striking out four.

Connor Kelley pitched one inning and Robert Orloski, a one-time draft pick by the Boston Red Sox out of Middleton, Idaho, closed out Texas in the final three innings. Orloski gave up a run in the eighth on a solo homer by Kimble Schuessler. He also yielded two in the ninth on a two-run blast by Max Belyeu.

Roadrunners’ fans might also remember for a long time two outfield defensive gems, one by Taussig, the Austin Regional Most Outstanding Player, and another by Lytle. In the top of the third, Schuessler smashed a ball that sailed into the right center gap. Taussig had to run hard just to get in position to catch it, but he did, reaching up and grabbing it back-handed while still on the move.

Next, he pivoted and fired the ball back toward the infield. Ballin caught the cutoff, wheeled and fired from just outside the infield area to McClure. Rylan Galvan, who was attempting to advance from second to third, was out on the play. So, instead of Texas potentially scoring a run on an extra-base hit to make it 2-1, UTSA shut down a rally on a hair-raising double play and turned it into a scoreless inning.

In the top of the fourth, Lytle may have made the catch of the season for UTSA. After Texas freshman Adrian Rodriguez opened the inning with a double off the right field wall, Casey Borba followed with a double of his own to left, driving in Rodriguez to make it 7-1.

Next, San Antonio’s Jalin Flores stepped to the plate. Flores had been struggling in the tournament, but he smashed a ball into center field that looked like extra bases, for sure. Lytle, a speedster, had other ideas. He darted two his left on a flat-out sprint, kept churning and eventually laid out parallel to the ground to snare the ball for an out, skidding into the wall at the end of the play.

Jonah Williams followed for Texas, reaching base on a fielding error by Hodge, the only miscue of the day by UTSA. But Brown steadied himself and retired two straight to end the threat. First, he got Will Gasparino on a ground ball and Ethan Mendoza on a fly to right.

Notable

UTSA played the game without leftfielder Drew Detlefsen, the team’s home run and RBI leader. Detlefsen tweaked a hamstring during Saturday’s 9-7 victory over Texas.

Rightfielder James Taussig was named the regional’s most outstanding player in a vote by credentialed media. Taussig, Hodge and Lytle made the all-tournament team as position players, while Braylon Owens and Zach Royse made it as pitchers.

The Roadrunners started the season with a 1-3 record but have turned it around to go 46-10 record since Feb. 22. They are 24-5 since an April 1 loss on the road at TCU.

Austin Regional

UTSA went 3-0 to win it. Texas was the runner up at 2-2. Kansas State finished 1-2 and Houston Christian 0-2. The Roadrunners defeated Kansas State 10-2 on Friday night and Texas 9-7 on Saturday before downing Texas 7-4 in the finals. Texas scored an opening-day 7-1 victory over Houston Christian, lost to UTSA and then eliminated Kansas State, 15-8, on Sunday morning just to reach the finals.

For Texas, it was the first time since 2007 that the team failed to win an Austin Regional. That tournament was held in Round Rock. It was the first time it failed to win an Austin Regional at Disch-Falk Field since 2006.

UCLA notable

The Bruins (45-16) cruised through the Los Angeles Regional by beating Fresno State, Arizona State and UC Irvine by a combined 38-14.

It is UCLA’s first trip to the super regional round since 2019 and its seventh overall since the tournament expanded for the 1999 season. Last season, the Bruins won only 19 games.

John Savage is in his 21st season as UCLA’s head coach. Under Savage, the Bruins reached the MCWS in 2010, 2012 and also in 2013, when they won the national title.

UCLA gets to play UTSA on is home field, where it is 29-7 this season. Bruins shortstop Roch Chowlowsky was named the Big Ten’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Chowlosky has a .370 average, 23 home runs and 72 RBI. Mulivai Levu bats .321 with 12 homers and a team-leading 84 RBI.

Roman Martin had a productive Los Angeles Regional, going six for 15 with two home runs and eight RBI.

Michael Barnett, Landon Stump and Ian May lead the team in innings pitched. Barnett is 11-1 with a 4.18 ERA. Stump is 6-1, 4.80 and May 7-3, 5.00. Jack O’Connor is 3-0 and 1.88 out of the bullpen. UCLA and Oregon tied for first in the Big Ten at 22-8.