By Jerry Briggs
Special for The JB Replay
The UTSA Roadrunners will close out a stretch of four straight road games to start the season today in Waco against the Baylor Bears.
They’re expected to face freshman lefthander Carson Bailey, who throws heat with velocity in the mid-90s, so the Roadrunners will need to be on top of their game. First pitch is at 3 p.m..
Reporters had a chance to chat on Monday’s media zoom call with Roadrunners coach Pat Hallmark, whose team lost its first two at UT Arlington last weekend before rebounding to win 6-3 on Sunday afternoon. A highlight of the Roadrunners’ first victory of the season came in the top of the eighth inning.
Down 3-2, they scored four runs to take the lead, with the big blow coming off the bat of a freshman playing in only his third college game.
Who is this freshman? Caden Miller is his name. A small-town guy, he attended high school in East Texas in the town of Madisonville, with a population of a little more than 13,000. Madisonville High School, about 90 miles north of Houston, has about 650 students total in grades 9-12.
Competing at the Class 4A level, the 6-foot-2 Miller honed his skills, showing enough ability with the bat to play his way into some high-level summer programs.
Hallmark said Miller’s summer ball team was one of the best in the state. “He’s facing some of the best pitching, playing in the top tournaments nationally,” the coach said, “so he’s seen good pitching.”
Miller’s arrival at UTSA in the fall was an unexpected pleasant surprise for the UTSA coaches.
“He’s a terrific player and a good get for us,” Hallmark said. “He was actually going to (Houston Christian University), I think, with the relationship (he had) with Lance Berkman. When Lance resigned (as coach) last summer, Caden opened his recruiting back up, and we were able to get him over here.
“So he was a fairly big recruit, certainly a big recruit for us. Happy to have him. He has some hitting talent. He has more raw hitting talent than most of the recruits we get.”
Miller, who sets up with an open stance from the left side, suffered through a bit of a rocky start at the plate in his first two games for the Roadrunners.
Batting leadoff, he went hitless in his first seven appearances and struck out three times combined in 5-0 and 7-4 losses on Friday and Saturday.
“He was a little antsy,” Hallmark said. “You probably saw (it), he was hitting in the leadoff spot Friday and Saturday (and) he was just antsy, a little jumpy up there, and he wasn’t getting real good looks at pitches.
“He was chasing more pitches than he ever chases. That’s one thing he does really well, which is why I hit him in the leadoff spot. He controls the strike zone terrifically, especially for a freshman. But, anyway, he settled down Sunday.”
Batting seventh in the series finale against the Mavericks, he walked in his first appearance in the second inning and then lined a grounder to first, which was turned into a double play, in the fourth. When Miller returned to the dugout, Hallmark told his young charge that his swing looked good.
He told him to stay with it. In the sixth inning, his approach paid dividends, and he singled through the right side. Coming up again in the eighth, UTSA had tied the game 3-3 on a Tye Odom RBI single, and Andrew Stucky had just flied out deep into the outfield, pushing Roadrunners on the bases to second and third.
In a lefty on lefty confrontation, Miller barreled a Kyle Winkler pitch high and deep to center. Ultimately, it caromed off the batters’ eye for a three-run homer. A jolt of energy surged through a visitors dugout that had not had much luck to that point.
“I thought he had a good at-bat on the groundout to first,” Hallmark said. “Kind of ironic, I told him after that at bat, just stay where you’re at. You’re swinging the bat good. The three-run homer came later.”
Just in time to save the Roadrunners’ opening weekend.
Coming up
UTSA at Baylor, today, 3 p.m.
Long Island at UTSA, Friday, 6 p.m.
Long Island at UTSA, doubleheader, noon
Long Island at UTSA, Sunday, 11 a.m.
Records
UTSA 1-2
Baylor 3-0