By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay

In their first test against a quality program this season, the UTSA Roadrunners won the baseball game and passed the examination.

UTSA scored six runs in the first inning Friday night and then held on behind reliever Sam Simmons for a 12-8 victory over the Dallas Baptist Patriots at Roadrunner Field.

With the win, the Roadrunners beat a perennial NCAA tournament team, scored in double figures for the fifth straight game and remained undefeated at 5-0, matching the 2010 and 2013 teams for the fastest starts in program history.

UTSA will try to break the record Saturday afternoon in the second of three games this weekend against the Patriots, who fell to 4-1.

In their first four games, the Roadrunners won by a combined score of 53-13, so Coach Pat Hallmark said on the eve of this weekend’s series that he knew the Patriots would be the first to challenge them.

He was eager to discover how his team could respond to adversity.

“We found out we can handle getting punched, at least sometimes, and we’ll keep finding out,” Hallmark said. “I asked the guys to enjoy tonight — without partaking. But I asked them to wake up (Saturday) a little bit pissed off.

“I don’t want to be satisfied.”

Hallmark said that sort of attitude last spring at the NCAA Austin Regional helped immensely when the Roadrunners beat the Kansas State Wildcats in their opener for the program’s historic first playoff victory.

He told his players then not to let up. To keep playing with a purpose, and they did it, winning the next two nights against the Texas Longhorns to claim their first NCAA regional title.

“This (game, against Dallas Baptist) is just one game,” Hallmark said. “Everybody thought we hung the moon (after Kansas State last year). I’m happy tonight, but we didn’t hang the moon. We beat a good team. We’ve beat a good team before.

“We need to win again.”

Dallas Baptist entered the season as one of only five programs in the nation to reach the NCAA tournament each of the last 11 years (excluding the 2020 Covid season).

The other four programs include Florida, LSU, Oklahoma State and Vanderbilt.

While some fans around the nation might not know about the Patriots’ prowess, the Roadrunners certainly do. Dallas Baptist entered the weekend 8-1 all time in baseball against UTSA.

Simmons (2-0) was still feeling the emotion about 30 minutes after it was over.

After hurling 4 and 2/3 innings of one-run relief to finish off the game and earn the victory, he was asked if it was all right for the media to call him the iron man, considering he threw 64 pitches.

“Yes sir, you can,” he said. “It was just a lot of fun. Games like that, as a player, are what you live for.”

Simmons entered with one out in the fifth inning, with UTSA leading 8-7. Dallas Baptist’s Ben Tryon had just cranked a three-run homer, prompting coaches to visit the mound and take the ball from UTSA starter Connor Kelley.

Simmons, who delivers his pitches both from the side and over the top, did not disappoint.

Facing his first two hitters, he yielded a loud single to Chayton Krauss and then another blast off the bat of Ryan Martin. Fortunately for Simmons and the Roadrunners, Martin’s ball sailed deep to center field, where Christian Hallmark turned, ran and made a running catch into the padded wall for the second out.

Landon Underhill followed with an infield single, putting two runners aboard and bringing up Dylan Cupp.

As it turned out, UTSA escaped the inning without another run scoring when UTSA shortstop Jordan Ballin snared Cupp’s ground ball deep in the hole and threw on multiple hops to first base for the third out.

Though the call was challenged, the umpires upheld it, one of several turning points in a crazy game.

As Patriots fans who made the trip to San Antonio groaned at the decision, Roadrunners fans cheered. They cheered even louder in UTSA’s next at bat as Andrew Stucky socked a two-run homer in the bottom half of the fifth to make it 10-7.

Drew Detlefsen followed with a two-run shot in the sixth for a 12-7 lead. In the top of the eighth, Simmons gave up a solo homer to slugger Adam Berghult as the Patriots trimmed the lead to 12-8.

But in the end, the 6-foot-4 righthander would yield only two more singles the rest of the way, finishing the game by fanning Berghult looking for the last out. The senior from Manvel gave up only one run on seven hits, while striking out four.

“Sam was great,” Hallmark said. “Kelley was good, too. I know the (statistics) line is not going to be good (for him) because he gave up some runs. But I’m proud of both of ’em. We didn’t walk a batter. That’s awesome against that team.

“It’s so, so important not to walk ’em.”

Kelley, a late-innings reliever last year, worked the first four and a third innings. Though he gave up two home runs among seven hits and seven runs, he also struck out seven and worked hard into the fifth inning.

That, in itself, was important for the Roadrunners. UTSA will need that from Kelley with ace Robert Orloski battling a shoulder injury. Orloski hurt his arm on opening day after throwing only 23 pitches.

Hallmark said he doesn’t know when he will be able to return but added that it won’t be soon.

Offensively, UTSA cranked out 10 hits, including three home runs, a double and a triple. The homers came from Diego Diaz, Stucky and Detlefsen. Josh Arquette stroked two extra-base hits and had three RBIs.

Diaz and Detlefsen also had a pair of hits and two RBIs apiece.

In the first inning, the Roadrunners erupted, with Arquette sparking the six-run uprising with a three-run triple.

Diaz capped the outburst with his second home run of the season, a two-run blast to right that chased Patriots starter Russ Smith, who took the loss and fell to 1-1.

Smith entered the season as a highly-regarded prospect from Cowley College, where he was 9-1. The righthander won on opening night for the Patriots, allowing two runs on two hits in four innings against Binghamton (N.Y.)

Against the Roadrunners, he couldn’t find the plate, walking three and giving up three hits, with the last one sent soaring 397 feet into an overcast sky by Diaz.

“Everybody’s going to want to talk about the hitting and about Sam, and we should,” Hallmark said. “The hitting and Sam were really good. But Kelley was a grown up tonight. To handle adversity like he did, I’m proud of him.”

Records

Dallas Baptist 4-1
UTSA 5-0

Coming up

Dallas Baptist at UTSA, Saturday, 2 p.m.
Dallas Baptist at UTSA, Sunday, 1 p.m.
UTSA at Texas State, Tuesday, 6 p.m.

Notable

The Dallas Baptist Patriots hit .353 as a team with six home runs in their first four games, including four by Jake Bennett.

Bennett went one for three with two runs scored and an RBI. But UTSA struck him out twice, once in the first inning by Connor Kelley and again in the eighth by Sam Simmons.

DBU cranked out 12 hits, including three homers.

Hitting the ball out of the park for the Patriots were Chayton Krauss in the third inning and Ben Tryon in the fifth, both off Kelley, and also Adam Berghult in the eighth off Sam Simmons.

Four free passes issued by Dallas Baptist pitching turned into UTSA runs. Three of the first four Roadrunners who walked ended up crossing the plate and, later, the second of two batters hit by pitches also scored.

UTSA pitching didn’t walk a batter, but it did put three runners on base via the hit by pitch. Only one of those Dallas Baptist base runners scored.

After plunking two straight batters in the sixth, UTSA’s Simmons fell behind Tryon 3-0 in the count, only to rally and register a strikeout on an overhand breaking pitch.

On Saturday, Jared Schaeffer (1-0, 0.00) is expected to start for Dallas Baptist, but for UTSA, it’s an unknown as coach Pat Hallmark said he remains undecided.

Ryan Borberg (0-0, 40.50) is expected to start for the Patriots on Sunday against Roadrunners’ righty Kendall Dove (1-0, 0.00).