By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
Garrett Gruell broke down the plain-and-simple plans for the UTSA Roadrunners tonight in preparation for an early start on Saturday in the semifinals of the American Athletic Conference postseason tournament.
“Just go to sleep a little bit earlier, drink some water,” Gruell told reporters on a zoom conference.
After eliminating the fourth-seeded Florida Atlantic University Owls Friday afternoon with a 6-3 victory, the No. 1 Roadrunners will face the Tulane Green Wave in a game that will start at 9 a.m. Saturday on the East Coast, 8 a.m. Central.
Tulane will need only one win to advance to the finals, while UTSA will need to win twice. A second game, if necessary, would be played later in the afternoon, following the AAC’s other semifinal.
UTSA is motivated for the rematch.
The Green Wave handed the Roadrunners their only loss of the tournament, hitting five home runs in a 10-6 decision Thursday at the BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, Fla.
In the aftermath, UTSA players apparently saw something that raised their ire.
“We’re going to come out with some fire,” Gruell said. “We don’t like getting beat, especially when you act like that afterwards, so we’re going to come out and put up a fight, for sure.”
A day after losing to Tulane, UTSA responded with a quality effort against a team that had won 37 games this season.
Though the Roadrunners had swept three games from the Owls in San Antonio in March, they knew their opponent had the talent to win, and they didn’t want to leave the tournament early.
In response, they forged ahead, improving to 44-12 on a remarkable season that by all estimations is expected to extend next week with an appearance in the NCAA tournament.
“I was proud of our team,” said UTSA coach Pat Hallmark, who claimed his 250th victory as a coach. “I thought we played nine innings. That’s critical in a tournament like this. You play every at bat. You play every pitch on defense, and you give yourself a chance to win when you do that.”
Trailing 1-0 after three innings, the Roadrunners scored two runs each in the fourth, the sixth and the eighth innings to take charge. Holding on to a 4-3 lead, their two-run eighth clinched it, when they came alive against FAU relief ace MJ Bollinger.
With one out, the Roadrunners strung together singles by Drew Detlefsen, Gruell and Diego Diaz. Diaz, a sophomore from Pharr, stepped to the plate with runners at first and second base and ripped an RBI single to center, scoring Detlefsen and sending Gruell to third.
After Steven Andrews replaced Bollinger, Jordan Ballin got into the game as a pinch runner for Gruell. Ty Hodge proceeded sacrifice with a bunt that scored Ballin and made it 6-3.
Rob Orloski, making his third relief appearance of the week, had one of his first pitches of the ninth drilled to third base. But Norris McClure gloved it and threw out the runner. Orloski retired the next two, ending the game.
UTSA pitching, including Conor Myles, Kendall Dove and Orloski, held one of the best offenses in the conference to nine hits. With runners in scoring position, UTSA hurlers were extremely tough, limiting FAU to a .111 average (one for nine).
Myles pitched five innings and held the Owls to two runs (one of them earned) on seven hits and no walks. A finesse pitcher, and a lefty, Myles threw 84 pitches, including 56 for strikes. He fanned three.
“He wanted to stay in,” Hallmark said. “He kind of pissed at me when I took him out. But the plan — coach (Zach) Butler and I go into every game with a script — and the script was Myles five, Dove two and Rob two. So, (Myles) was pitching OK but he wasn’t cruising, so despite his best efforts we stuck to the script.”
Dove ended up pitching one and two thirds, while Orloski went two and a third while throwing only 24 pitches, which could come in handy in the next two days as UTSA tries to add a postseason title to the one they claimed in the regular season.
Offensively, the Roadrunners had two-hit games from McClure, who extended his batting streak to 22 games, and Detlefsen. Gruell, playing for the first time in three games this week as the designated hitter, had a hit and two RBI.
The Roadrunners seemed to get better swings as the game progressed, a trait that they have exhibited many times this season, producing seven hits combined from the sixth through the eighth innings.
Hallmark said his team is good at adjusting to situations within games.
“It’s one of two things,” he said. “We do adjust. Most of our hitters are either older hitters who have been around, so once they see a pitcher. Or, if they don’t get the at bat, they see what’s happening. They pay attention. So they can make some adjustments.
“The other thing is, they tend to like the moment. A lot of our guys like the moment. (Mason) Lytle and (James) Taussig and Norris (McClure) — today it was Garrett Gruell. Garrett Gruell was huge for us today. I think they like the moment, and the moment is usually later in games.”
With six runs scored against FAU, the Roadrunners broke the AAC record for runs in a season with 499. They broke the previous record of 498 held by East Carolina last season.
Hallmark said he is looking forward to the Tulane game.
“I hope we play two,” the coach said. “I’d love to play a lot of baseball, and I hope it’s a dogfight and nasty and ugly and all that good stuff that we like.”
Records
Florida Atlantic 37-21
UTSA 44-12
Friday’s scores
Elimination games
UTSA 6, Florida Atlantic 3 (Florida Atlantic eliminated)
South Florida 7, Charlotte 6 (Charlotte eliminated)
Saturday’s schedule
Semifinals
Tulane vs. UTSA, 8 a.m.
East Carolina vs. South Florida, 47 minutes after the first game
Tulane vs. UTSA, if necessary, TBD
East Carolina vs. South Florida, if necessary, TBD
Sunday’s schedule
Finals, 11 a.m.
Notable
With the win, the Roadrunners improved to 2-1 in Clearwater and to 15-2 in their last 17 games. Their 44 wins on the season are a school record, breaking the old record of 39. Hallmark is now 250-156 in his career, including 66-48 in two years at Incarnate Word and 184-108 at six years at UTSA.
On opening day at the AAC tournament, they downed the Rice Owls, 4-2, on Tuesday on a combined two-hitter from starter Braylon Owens and Orloski. Tulane raked for 14 hits and five homers in a 10-6 victory on Thursday. Green Wave players who homered against the Roadrunners included Mattias Haas, James Agabedis III (who had two), Theo Bryant and Jason Wachs.
UTSA pitching held FAU to nine hits, including seven singles, a double and one homer — a solo shot by Carter Brady.
The top hitters for the Roadrunners in the tournament have included Mason Lytle (six for 11 with two home runs), Taussig (five for 11) and Norris McClure (five for 13). Lorenzo Morresi has three hits, including two doubles, and three RBI in his last two games.
Pitching leaders have included Owens, who struck out 11 while yielding two runs on two hits in five and two thirds innings in the opener, and Rob Orloski.
Orloski has been a workhorse in pitching all three games, giving up one run on two hits and one walk in six innings combined. He has struck out seven. One of the hits against him was a big one, a two-run homer to Jason Wachs in a decisive three-run inning for Tulane on Thursday afternoon.