SAN ANTONIO – JYD.
Three letters perfectly capture the spirit of the UTSA Baseball program. They stand for junkyard dog and it’s that mindset that has propelled the Roadrunners through a historic 2025 season that includes a school-record 44 wins (and counting), the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship and the program’s first-ever at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“I think the best way to encapsulate it is there’s no reason not to get the job done,” said Pat Hallmark, UTSA’s sixth-year head coach and the 2025 AAC Coach of the Year. “Whether you’re talking about a facility or the weather or any bit of adversity that may creep into life in general or a baseball game, none of that stuff matters. There’s a task at hand and somebody is capable of performing. We want to be that somebody.”
UTSA has, by any measure, performed well this season. The Roadrunners, who open NCAA Tournament play on Friday at 6 p.m. facing Kansas State, earned a No. 2 seed in the Austin Regional, the highest in program history thanks to a selection-day RPI of 25. UTSA’s winning percentage (77.2) is sixth-best among all NCAA Division I teams this season.
Senior center fielder Mason Lytle, a Pearland, Texas, native, returned to the Roadrunners this fall looking to help his squad make history. Lytle was both The American’s Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year in 2025, ranking ninth in the NCAA in hits and 18th in runs scored.
“This last year was all about the team,” Lytle said. “I just wanted to make it as far as we can and play for the team. The goal is to go to Omaha when you step on campus. I think everybody here believed this is what we could do. I don’t think there was any doubt we could make a regional and continue to play, hopefully, past that.”
UTSA’s lineup has produced one of the best offensive outputs in the nation this season, ranking in the top-20 nationally in batting average, hits, on-base percentage and runs scored. But the Roadrunners’ accomplishments aren’t about flash, they’re about the team’s trademark gritty personality. UTSA has found multiple ways to win this season. In fact, nearly 30 percent of their victories this year (13) have come with the Roadrunners either trailing or tied after six innings.
“Junkyard dog is definitely what we try to be every time we step in between those lines, Lytle said. “If a pitch doesn’t go our way, so what? Next pitch. If a bad hop happens, so what? Next play. Just keep going and play the game the right way no matter what happens.”
Robert Orloski, a First-Team All-American Athletic Conference relief pitcher, believes the Roadrunners’ resiliency is as important of a component to their success as any quantifiable statistic. Orloski enters the postseason with an 8-0 record with eight saves.
“Facing adversity, just being able to, no matter what happens, just get over it and go to the next play, the next pitch, the next opportunity,” Orloski said. “That’s why we’re having a good season. No matter what we face, we’re always willing to bounce back.”
Hallmark is quick to credit the players for embodying the mentality and says it speaks to who they are as people just as much as it does to the culture of the program.
“It’s a testament to the individual players’ character and the parents of the players who raised them right,” Hallmark said. “Because the players embrace the junkyard dog mentality, the overachieving mentality. Frankly, not every player does because it’s not that fun sometimes. These players have trusted us. They’re very, very good people. You don’t do what they’ve done without having some strong integrity and just wonderful character.”
The chemistry among the players on this year’s team was something they recognized immediately and knew it could be the catalyst for a special season.
“Right when the fall started, we knew we had a chance; we knew we had a good team,” Orloski said. “I think just the morale of the team and our fall practices – we were all intense the whole time.”
For UTSA, this week’s appearance in the NCAA Tournament will be just its fourth all-time and the Roadrunners will be looking for their first-ever NCAA Tournament victory, which will mark yet another milestone in the best season in school history. But it’s not an outlier. Hallmark has led UTSA to four consecutive 30-plus-win seasons, tying a school record. He knows that with the right mentality, the potential for his program is limitless.
“You can find all the excuses in the world to be mediocre or less than mediocre, but what’s that going to get you?” Hallmark said. “That junkyard dog mentality – you’ve got to have it at a place like this. You’d better be absorbed if you’re going to overachieve and that’s what it’s taken.”
When the Roadrunners step onto UFCU Disch-Falk Field this week, the moment may be bigger, but their approach will remain the same.
“At the end of the day, we need to play good baseball,” Hallmark said. “What we’re going to prepare to do is what we’ve prepared to do all year. One pitch at a time and try to win the next pitch.”