UTSA Baseball: 10 Years Later

This past weekend the #22 UTSA Roadrunners baseball team played host to the #18 Dallas Baptist Patriots in a battle for the the Conference USA regular season Championship and bragging rights for the best college baseball team in the state of Texas. Due to the potential bad weather forecasted for the weekend the schedule changed to allow a double header on Friday. As the Texas legend and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Ernie Banks once said, “Let’s play two”!

On Friday I attended the first game of the double header between DBU and UTSA. That was the first time I have been to a UTSA baseball game in 10 years without even realizing it. Coincidentally, that is also the same amount of time it has been since the UTSA Roadrunners were in the College Baseball NCAA Tournament. In 2013 UTSA won the WAC conference tournament to earn an automatic bid into the Tournament. There was also the miracle of what is now known as ESPN+ carrying the total coverage of the NCAA Tournament so I would be able to watch rather than following along on the internet. The luck also involved playing a west coast team so the game would be on live late at night so we could enjoy / stress over it. UTSA drew the 4th seed in the regional which meant they would be facing Michael Conforto and the #4 Oregon State Beavers in Corvallis, Oregon. It was a huge deal that UTSA made the tournament but now they would be playing one of the best teams in the country with a player drafted in the top 10 of the 2014 MLB Draft who is still a big league starter today. Little did the Beavers know, a scrappy team from San Antonio who plays its home games in a stadium comparable to a high school team was going to give them one hell of a fight that Friday night.

UTSA started Nolan Trabanino who pitched the best 5 innings of his life. He allowed 7 hits, only walked 1 batter, had 1 strikeout and gave up 3 runs with 1 being earned. The game truly played out like a movie. In the 1st inning UTSA scored the first run on a Tony Ramirez single that brought in Riley Good. The score finally changed in the 4th inning when Oregon State tied the game. We were deadlocked at 1-1 until the 6th inning when UTSA’s Mike Warren singled to bring in Riley Good once again. That did not last long because Oregon State plated two runs taking the lead for the first time in the bottom of the 6th making it a score of 3-2. Once that scoreboard turned to the top of the 7th inning, the rest of the game basically played out like a Hollywood blockbuster film as if it wasn’t already. There was two outs for UTSA when the rally started after Riley Good walked and took 1st base. Then, Daniel Rockett was hit by a pitch putting a man on second and first. RJ Perucki came up to bat and singled on a 0-2 count scoring Riley Good for the 3rd time in the game. We head to the bottom of the 7th tied 3-3 and OSU can’t put any runs together. It took a wild pitch and an error but UTSA plated a 4th run to take the lead in the top of the 8th inning 4-3. The Roadrunners get out of the 8th inning unscathed but don’t pick up any insurance runs in the top of the 9th. That took us to the bottom of the 9th inning in Corvallis so close to a victory the UTSA faithful could taste it sitting on pins and needles. Matt Sims was on the mound who at the time finished 2nd all time in UTSA history in saves (20), ranked 2nd all-time in lowest opponent batting average and was 3rd all time in strikeouts per nine innings. Whatever was to happen next, UTSA was in as good of hands as it could be. Sims walked the first batter, then hit Michael Conforto with a pitch so now there are two men on with Dylan Davis up to bat. You already know what happens next. Davis takes the first pitch and sends it to deep right center field. A 2 RBI double scoring the winning runs and shattering the dreams of a small school so close to its upset of the century. Oregon State won 5-4 and UTSA loss its next game to Texas A&M eliminating them from the NCAA Tournament. That was UTSA’s 3rd NCAA Tournament appearance and they have not been back since but I could not be more proud of that performance Friday night on May 31, 2013.

That brings us 10 years later where UTSA has the best chance of any to make the NCAA Tournament after getting pushed out last year by that same Dallas Baptist baseball team. The same team UTSA defeated in 2013 to win the WAC Conference to punch that ticket to play Oregon State. This past weekend Dallas Baptist swept UTSA to win the Conference USA regular season title so now it’s up to the Roadrunners to decide how their story will end. Will we wait another 10 years to feel that joy and excitement of trying to take down the “big boys” on the biggest stage? I for one can’t wait to find out. I will be watching along nervously the same way I have the past 10 years.

“I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.” - Andy Bernard

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