Find a Way.
It’s an eight-letter phrase that both adorns Jordan Ballin’s glove and is tattooed on his skin. But it’s much more than a slogan; it is his defining philosophy and one that helped him become one of the nation’s top freshmen, playing for UTSA in 2025.
“My parents and I, we have a special saying, ‘find a way,’” said Ballin, a native of nearby Boerne, Texas. “There’s going to be adversity wherever you go and whatever you do. I have a little brother at home, so it’s important to be the role model for him that I needed to grow up to be and showing him the right way of life and how to get through things.”
In his first collegiate season, Ballin led the American Athletic Conference and finished fourth nationally in on-base percentage at .541. He was fourth on his team with a .333 batting average, earning American Athletic Conference All-Freshman Team and Second-Team All-Conference accolades.
“I set myself to a high standard,” Ballin said. “There’s always things I can improve on. Whatever can help the team get where we need to be is what I’m going to do. Being kind of hard on myself definitely sets the bar high but, at the same time, I try to keep a humble nature. Just controlling what I can control and not letting the emotions affect me in the big parts of the game.”
His approach to baseball is wise beyond his years. While Ballin was in the midst of playing an critical role in helping the Roadrunners achieve the best season in program history at 47-15 – he started 43 of the team’s 62 games – his head coach, Pat Hallmark, remarked several times that “Jordan Ballin is more mature than me.”
Ballin’s opportunity is one that he doesn’t take for granted. Hailing from the greater San Antonio area, his chance to help the Roadrunners’ program ascend to among the nation’s elite is especially rewarding in the ways he can affect both the team and the community.
“Being that hometown kid and everybody else back home is seeing this DI dream is possible no matter where you’re from,” Ballin said. “Boerne’s not the biggest city and I’m able to play and how the little ones and the people who look up to us that it is possible if you put your mind to it. No matter what size or shape you are, whatever you do, just know that it is possible. It is very special.”
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“What about Jordan’s size? Is that going to affect his playing time?”
It was one of the first questions Ballin’s mother, Melissa, asked Hallmark on her son’s recruiting visit. Ballin stands 5-foot-9 and 192 pounds. Some coaches during the recruiting process considered Ballin’s size to be a hinderance. Hallmark wasn’t one of them.
“Coach Hallmark was like, ‘I think that’s more of an advantage for him. He’s obviously not going to hit home runs, but he is going to get on base because his strike zone is a little smaller and because of the way he plays,’” Ballin recalled. “Hearing that, I think that instilled even more confidence in me.”
The culture of the UTSA program was highly appealing to Ballin as he made his collegiate decision. The Junkyard Dog mentality of the team, which is now well known following the Roadrunners’ historic season that culminated in the first NCAA Super Regional appearance in program history, fit perfectly with his family’s emphasis on finding a way.
“I think it was the perfect fit,” Ballin said. “We love having our backs against the wall and us being the underdog. I always talk to my mom about it. She tells me that there’s always going to be adversity and always going to be something in the way, I just have to find a way to get through it. With the JYD mentality, I think this is where I need to be for sure.”
Ballin credits much of his growth – both at the plate and from a confidence standpoint – over the past year to assistant coach Ryan Aguayo, who serves as the team’s hitting and infield coach.
“I can’t thank Coach Aguayo enough for giving me an opportunity,” Ballin said. “He has been pushing me to be the best version of myself but, at the same time, he kind of reiterated and reassured me that I do belong here and I can fit in.”
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Simply put, Ballin was born a Roadrunner.
Melissa and Ryan, Ballin’s parents, were teenagers at the time of his birth and both graduated from UTSA. They got him involved in sports from an early age and baseball was a fit right way.
“My parents were young so they were also figuring out life too,” Ballin said. “They were both athletic and love sports. I think I was about three or four years old. I started off with soccer, but didn’t really like that. And then they handed me a bat and a ball and a glove. I couldn’t stay away from it. From then on, I had a love for the game, so it’s been in my blood for a while.”
As a standout player at Boerne’s Samuel V. Champion High School, Ballin was ecstatic when UTSA began recruiting him. As season-ticket holders, he and his family regularly attended the Roadrunners’ games and the university itself has been such a central part of his entire life.
“Most of my family went to UTSA,” Ballin said. “My parents, my uncle, my aunt. We bleed that orange and blue. When we first heard that I had an opportunity to come here and play, it was really special. Playing games here and having my family here played a huge factor.”
Ballin’s uncle Justin Chavez joined the UTSA Football team in 2013, two years after the program’s inception. Ballin remembers going to the Alamodome as a kid to watch Chavez play.
“He played free safety at UTSA and that set a special place in my heart,” Ballin said. “I am continuing that legacy because he played here.”
Ballin specifically remembers attending the 2015 home opener in which the Roadrunners played host to Kansas State. Ten years later when this year’s NCAA Baseball Tournament bracket was revealed, matching UTSA with K-State, it was a special moment Ballin and his uncle shared.
“We had multiple conversations of him just being like, ‘It’s unreal seeing you relive this dream that I had as well,’” Ballin said. “He texted me right before the game and said, ‘Good luck. I know you’re playing K-State.’”
With Ballin as the starting second baseman, the Roadrunners defeated the Wildcats 10-2 in Austin for the program’s first-ever NCAA Tournament victory.
“It was kind of cool to look back and be like, this is kind of where being able to play here all stemmed from,” he said. “It’s a blessing for sure.”
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Leadership has always seemed to come naturally to Ballin.
In addition to his success on the diamond, he also played quarterback for Champion’s football team. It was an experience that he believes has paid dividends for him as a starting Division I collegiate baseball player.
“I think being quarterback helped me a lot to get through his whole process and be where I am today,” Ballin said. “I think it helped me in the confidence area of baseball. Using my instincts and really trusting myself – being in tough situations and crunch-time minutes and having to be ‘the man,’ if you will.
“If you know anything about me, I hate talking about myself, so using that terminology is weird to me, but I think it just helped being that leader to people that need it. I’m able to lead from the front as well as anybody that’s struggling in the back.”
Ballin’s leadership also comes by example, as he is relentless in his pursuit of self-improvement and growth.
“I think there’s always improvement to be done, so I critique the little details that people don’t really see out on the field, whether it be the speed aspect or the little twitchiness between pitches,” he said. “I’m hunting the improvement of the game and just being the best version of myself.”
The transition from high school to college was accelerated by the mentorship of Ballin’s older, more experienced teammates who helped him prepare for a major role on last year’s squad.
“It’s unreal how much they help me,” he said. “Norris [McClure], Mason [Lytle], JT [James Taussig], all those guys took me under their wing and made me realize that there’s more to baseball than just strikeouts and home runs. All these at-bats that you have that may not go your way, there’s tons more down the road and it’s just next pitch and controlling what you can control. It’s about enjoying these moments and making the best that you can with it. They’ve played a huge impact on my success.”
Chemistry matters. Ballin has seen it at every level of his athletic career. The culture that exists within the UTSA Baseball program, he is confident, is one of the primary reasons the Roadrunners achieved record-setting accomplishments this past season.
“I think that makes or breaks a team, if I’m being honest,” Ballin said. “We have a great group of guys who pull for each other. Whether we’re in the lineup or not, we wish the best for each other and we put all of our trust into our coaches. Having the group of guys that are all on the same page and have the same mindset as you is what’s going to take you far. And I think that’s kind of separates us from a bunch of schools. We’re just going to make the most of what we’ve got and this past season we did that.”
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For those who know how meticulously Ballin approaches the game of baseball, his fascination with the human body comes as no surprise.
A kinesiology major in UTSA’s College for Health, Community and Policy, Ballin aspires to one day work with athletes as a physical therapist.
“I’m majoring in kinesiology with a concentration with a concentration in rehabilitation,” he said. “If baseball doesn’t work out after I’m done here, then I want to become a physical therapist for some kind of professional baseball team, whether it be major or minor league. I hope I can do that in the future.”
An injury sustained in high school further increased Ballin’s interest in physical therapy as a career field. He views it as an opportunity to give back.
“I broke my leg my freshman year, so going through that interested me, seeing how it affects people when they do something traumatic,” Ballin said. “You’re with them throughout that process and seeing them get better. I love helping people and I love being hands on.”
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It’s hard to argue that Ballin doesn’t have the perfect last name for a baseball player.
Technically it’s pronounced buy-een, but Ballin has embraced the anglicized pronunciation of ball-in for much of his life. It certainly fits the way he plays the game.
“People really only know me as buy-een if they played with me in t-ball through coach pitch years,” Ballin said. “It’s fun. It’s super cool to have fans come up to me and be like, ‘Are you the guy with the last name Ballin?’ Yeah, that’s me.”
The name Ballin has made for himself at UTSA extends far beyond just his last name. He is known for his incredible plate discipline, which allowed him to rank top-five nationally the entire season in on-base percentage and top-15 in the nation in walks per game.
“Another motto of our family is just, ‘don’t strike out,’” Ballin said. “Carrying that through the four years of high school up until now, that’s really helped. When you don’t strike out, you put balls in play. When you put balls in play, it makes the defense work. When you’re fast, you put even more pressure on the defense, and I think that helped me a lot with the stature that I am.”
Ballin fits his team’s identity to a tee. His success has come largely because of outworking the opposition. Doing more with less and playing smarter.
In many ways, UTSA has been a home to Ballin his entire life. Now, he feels at home helping the baseball team he grew up watching reach historic new heights.
“I’m not the biggest, I’m not the strongest, but I have something to prove,” Ballin said. “I keep a chip on my shoulder and prove that I do belong here. This is where I need to be.”