UTSA to face off against Texas StateUTSA to face off against Texas State
Baseball

UTSA to face off against Texas State

by Kaden Chumbley

SAN ANTONIO— The Roadrunners are set to take on Texas State at 6 p.m. on Sunday, Apr. 29 at Bobcat Ballpark in San Marcos, Texas.

The Matchup
The 33-10 UTSA Roadrunners will take on the 27-29 Texas State Bobcats in the Roadrunners’ first mid-week contest since Apr. 1 against TCU.

The weekend series will be broadcast on ESPN+. Live stats for the game will be on utsa.statbroadcast.com.

Series History
The Roadrunners and Texas State have played in 104 games against each other Texas State winning 63 games. In the last game, the Roadrunners played the Bobcats. UTSA won 12-9 on Tuesday, Mar. 25

On the Mound
On the mound for the Roadrunners will be Sam Simmons. This will be Simmons’ second start of the year. Simmons has thrown 17.1 innings pitched, notching 14 strikeouts.

Last Time Out
UTSA took home its sixth conference series win by sweeping Memphis in the three-game series. UTSA outscored Memphis 35-14

Win on Sunday 
The Roadrunners are 9-1 on Sundays. Their last loss on a Sunday was to Dallas Baptist, which was ranked No. 20 at the time. The Roadrunners have outscored their opponents 76-41 on Sundays.

Home Run Cycle
UTSA was able to hit for the home run cycle in the bottom of the second in their game against Tulane on Saturday, Apr. 19. It all started with a three-run home run hit by Norris McClure. Diego Diaz hit the second homer of the inning, this time a grand slam. McClure stepped up to the plate once again and hit the two-run homer. Mason Lytle completed the home run cycle with a solo homer.   

Detlefsen, Lytle and Taussig
The Roadrunners’ outfield has been dominating thanks to the likes of Drew Detlefsen, Lytle and James Taussig. As a trio, they have a batting average of .353, driving in a total of 154 RBIs, which is 42.9 percent of UTSA’s total RBIs. Lytle, Taussig, and Detlefsen have a total of 25 homers, which is 49 percent of UTSA’s total home runs.

UTSA RPI
The Roadrunners currently have an RPI ranking of 27. The Roadrunners are down 110 spots from the first ranking that game out on Mar. 2. UTSA’s lowest RPI ranking this year was 23 on Apr. 23, and their highest ranking was 143 on Mar. 11.

The Roadrunners are 3-3 versus quad one; they are currently 2-2 versus quad two opponents, with seven quad two games coming up. The Roadrunners are 10-3 against quad three opponents and 18-2 against quad four opponents.

Roadrunners in the top 30
The Roadrunners have been making noise across the nation as they rank inside the top thirty in batting average, doubles, doubles per game, fielding percentage, HBP, hits, on-base percentage, runs, sacrifice fly, scoring, strikeout-to-walk ratio and walks per nine innings.     

National RBI Ranking
Detlefsen is tied for 12th in the nation in RBIs with 59 to his name. Detlefsen is averaging 1.37 RBIs per game, which puts him 21st in the nation.

He Gets on Base
Freshman Jordan Ballin has been making a name for himself as he currently has an on-base percentage of .547, which is the fourth highest in Division I baseball. It is also the highest on-base percentage in the conference. Ballin has 30 walks on the year with 12 HBP.

AAC Weekly Awards
Infielder Ty Hodge was named the American Athletic Conference Player of the Week, the conference office announced at 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Apr. 28. Hodge had an outstanding week as he recorded six hits, including two doubles and two home runs.

The Roadrunners have now won six Player of the Week awards this year: Lytle has won it twice, Hodge, McClure, Detlefsen and Andrew Stucky have all won it once. Braylon Owens is the only UTSA pitcher named Pitcher of the Week. Conor Myles, Caden Miller, Robert Orloski and Owens have all garnered honorable mentions.

All he does is win
Sophomore pitcher Orloski has done great work coming out of the bullpen as he has appeared in 16 games, racking up seven wins in the process, which puts him tied for 19th in the nation. Orloski has pitched in 50.1 innings, striking out 49 batters and holding his opponents to a .221 batting average with three saves.

 Leading the League
UTSA currently leads the American Athletic Conference in seven different statistical measures, which are batting average (.326), slugging percentage (.509), on-base percentage (.438), runs, (387), hits (474), RBIs (359) and total bases (741).  

Stucky is leading the league in OPS and slugging percentage. Lytle is leading the AAC in at-bats, runs, hits, and total bases. Ballin is leading the league in on-base percentage.

At-Home Dominance
The Roadrunners are 22-2 at home, outscoring their opponents 262-104. UTSA is batting .357 at Roadrunner Field, hitting a total of 30 homers.

UTSA vs. Ranked Opponents
Since taking over the program in 2020, Pat Hallmark is 19-21 against ranked foes. With their most recent win coming against No. 8 Texas on Mar. 18, the Roadrunners’ highest-ranked win came against #2 Stanford in 2022. UTSA is now 3-2 against ranked foes as they have beaten No. 14 Texas A&M, No. 20 DBU and No. 8 Texas.

Win Streak
After starting off the season 1-3, the Roadrunners ripped off a 14-game win streak, which is now the UTSA baseball team’s longest win streak in program history, beating a 12-game win streak set by the 1994 team.

The streak started with a 6-5 win over Long Island University on Feb. 22. The win streak continued until Mar. 9 with a 7-4 win over Texas Southern. With 13 of the 14 games played at home, UTSA took down No. 14 Texas A&M in College Station on Mar. 4. The streak finally ended with a loss to UIW on Mar. 11.

Taussig Tanks
Taussig had an outstanding week, in Mar. 11-Mar. 16 as he blasted four home runs in the three games against Dallas Baptist. Taussig batted .538 on the week, racking up 11 RBIs with an outstanding 1.462 slugging percentage.

Hallmark’s 150th
Head coach Pat Hallmark earned his 150th career win with UTSA on Saturday, Mar. 1, defeating the YSU 16-13. Hallmark is just the third UTSA head coach to reach at least 150 wins in program history.

No Free Bags
The Roadrunners hold a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.79, which is 13th in the nation and second in the American Athletic Conference. They also have a 3.16 ratio of walks per nine innings, which is eighth in the nation.

Doubles and Jacks
The Roadrunner offense has come alive as they have racked up 100 doubles on the year, putting them in second place among the AAC. UTSA has 51 homers, which is fourth in the conference. Detlefsen leads the team in homers with 11 to his name, which is tied for third in the conference.

Energy Stu
Senior catcher Stucky, whose name is pronounced STEW-key, was the inspiration for a team mantra, Energy Stu. Comes from a phrase shouted to the team to raise the energy at practice.

The Return of Malone
Former pitcher Luke Malone rejoins the Roadrunners in a different capacity as he joined the coaching staff in October 2024 as the Director of Player Development and Analytics.

Malone was a star pitcher for the Roadrunners from 2020 to 2023, earning all-conference accolades in each of his final two seasons. The right-hander finished his career with a 17-9 record, 4.45 ERA, 178 strikeouts and a pair of saves in 63 appearances that totaled 234.2 innings pitched.

2024 AAC All-Freshman Team
The Roadrunners welcome back both Diego Diaz and Orloski, who both made the 2024 AAC All-Freshman Team. Both Diaz and Orloski are already seeing significant action for the Roadrunners.

Diaz has started eight games for the Roadrunners at second base, playing in a total of 18 games. Orloski has pitched in 11 games for the Roadrunners, tallying 36 innings pitched with 35 strikeouts and 15 walks with seven wins and one save.

Preseason AAC Rankings
After finishing 17-10 to finish second in the American Athletic Conference in 2024, their first year in the league, the Roadrunners were picked to finish fourth by the league’s coaches in 2025.

Lytle’s Accomplishments
Senior outfielder Lytle has racked up an impressive list of awards entering his senior campaign. In his first year with the Roadrunners, Lytle was named 2024 AAC Newcomer of the Year while also being named to the AAC All-Academic Team.

Leading up to the 2025 season, Lytle has been named as the 2025 Preseason Player of the Year, the 2025 D1Baseball AAC Preseason Player of the Year and to the 2025 Perfect Game College Baseball Preseason AAC All-Conference Team. He was also named the 32nd-best outfielder in the nation, according to D1Baseball.

The Hodge Brothers
UTSA has a pair of brothers on the team, Ty Hodge and Nathan Hodge. The Hodge brothers come from College Station, Texas, but have two different paths in finding their way to UTSA. T. Hodge is a transfer from Houston Christian who spent a year at Texas A&M. N. Hodge is a true freshman.

Home Grown
28 of the 38 players on the roster are from Texas, making up just shy of 75 percent of the roster. These players range from southern Texas, such as Pharr, all the way up to northern Texas, such as Mansfield. Josh Vaughn is the lone Roadrunner who calls San Antonio home.

Overseas Roadrunners
The Roadrunners have two players who come from outside of America, Lorenzo Morresi and Myles. Morresi is from Macerata, Italy. Before coming to UTSA, Morressi spent two seasons in Hobbs, New Mexico, playing at NMJC.

Myles comes from the southern hemisphere, calling Melbourne, Australia, home. Myles spent two seasons in west Texas, as he played for Odessa JC before coming to play for the Roadrunners.

Fresh-faced Freshmen
UTSA has seven true freshmen on the roster and two redshirt freshmen. The two redshirt freshmen are Ryan Jester, who spent last season with the Roadrunners, and Holden Harris, who comes to UTSA after spending the 2024 season at TCU.

The seven true freshmen are Peyton Adams, Ballin, Mason Jacob, N. Hodge, Ryley Chapman, Todd Rochelle and Miller.

Up Next
The Roadrunners will take on South Florida in a three-game series starting at 5:30 p.m. on May 2 in Tampa, Fla.

-UTSA-