By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA Roadrunners will play in the Austin Regional in the NCAA baseball tournament and will face the Kansas State Wildcats on opening day Friday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, according to the bracket released Monday.
The Texas Longhorns are the hosts in the regional and the No. 2 overall seed in the 64-team tournament. As the regional No. 1, the Longhorns will open with the four-seed Houston Christian Huskies.
The Roadrunners are seeded second in the region, taking on the No. 3 Wildcats of the Big 12. On Friday, the Longhorns will play the Huskies at 1 p.m. The Roadrunners and the Wildcats will play at 6 p.m. Both games are on ESPN +.
For UTSA, it is the program’s first NCAA regional appearance in 12 years and fourth overall. Facing Kansas State, UTSA will be looking for its first victory in NCAA competition. The team bowed out with 0-2 records in its previous three trips.
Records
(Regional seed, school, records, conference finish)
1) Texas 42-12, 22-8, first in the Southeastern Conference
2) UTSA 44-13, 23-4, first in the American Athletic Conference
3) Kansas State 31-24, 17-13 sixth in the Big 12
4) Houston Christian 32-23, 17-13, sixth in the Southland Conference
Notable
The Roadrunners are playing in an NCAA regional for only the fourth time since the program’s inception in 1992, with the other three in 1994, 2005 and 2013.
This is UTSA’s first regional appearance after receiving an at-large bid, with the other three coming as a conference tournament winner with an automatic bid.
In the Roadrunners’ first regional, under Coach Jimmy Shankle, they played in Austin in the NCAA Central Region as the fifth seed, where they lost the first game to No. 19 Nevada 11-8 and fell to Arkansas State 10-5.
In 2005, with a team coached by Sherman Corbett, UTSA competed in the Waco Regional as the fourth seed, taking on No. 6 Baylor in the first game and losing 8-3. The Roadrunners were then eliminated in the second game against Stanford, falling 6-2.
In UTSA’s most recent regional appearance, the Roadrunners competed in the Corvallis Regional in 2013 under Jason Marshall as the fourth seed, where they fell 5-4 to No. 3 Oregon State and 6-1 to Texas A&M.
UTSA’s coach Pat Hallmark is the architect of this year’s team that set the school record for victories in a season. Hallmark, a Houston native, is in his sixth year as head coach of the Roadrunners.
Quotable
“We’re excited and ready to go to work,” Hallmark said. “That’s really the reaction. I’m antsy to get back (in the office) in RACE and pull up some video and start scouting.”
Asked if he thinks this was a “reward bid” for the team’s body of work with a two seed and a game close to home, Hallmark said he doesn’t know.
“Quite frankly, I’m not sure and uh, I don’t care,” he said laughing. “We got a tough regional like they all are. So, again, we’re just eager and hungry to go to work and prepare so we give ourselves a best chance to win on Friday.”
Coming out of the AAC tournament, Hallmark said he guessed that the NCAA committee would send UTSA to a regional in the state of Texas or in the western United States.
He said having his team prepare to play in Austin has some advantages, such as being able to stay one more night in San Antonio before traveling to Austin to practice on Thursday.
Traveling to the West Coast, he said, would have meant the team would need to leave Wednesday. Regardless, he said, the all three of his potential competitors are “really” good.
“I don’t know what regional I’d prefer,” he said. “I’ve been asked that a few times. But logistically, with travel, it’s nice. We can go up Thursday now. That’s what I’d like to do. You know, we practice Thursday at their field … So it’s another night the kids get to sleep in their own bed. We get a full practice here on Wednesday.
“Right now we need to make a few minor adjustments offensively. So there’s some things that will help, being this close to the ballpark.”