CLEARWATER, Fla. – Stepping up to the plate in the eighth inning Tuesday, James Taussig knew that he and his UTSA Baseball teammates wanted to reverse their streak of struggles at the conference tournament.
The Roadrunners (43-11), who are in the midst of the best season in school history, hadn’t won a conference tournament game since 2022. With top-seeded UTSA trailing eighth-seeded Rice 2-1 in the opening round of the American Athletic Conference Tournament, Taussig ripped an 0-1 pitch into right-center field that scored Caden Miller and Mason Lytle to give the Roadrunners the lead.
“Since I’ve been here, we’ve had a little trouble in the conference tournament,” Taussig said. “I think that was on a couple of our minds who have been here for the past two years. It was a big win for the guys who’ve been here a long time and we’ve been out 0-2. I’m really happy about that.”
The starting pitchers took center stage for the first seven innings as UTSA starter Braylon Owens faced off with Rice’s Davion Hickson. Owens finished the game with a career-high 11 strikeouts, pitching 5.2 innings and allowing an earned run. Hickson struck out seven in 7.1 innings of work.
“You could kind of tell in the first inning he had some pretty good stuff,” said UTSA head coach Pat Hallmark, the 2025 AAC Coach of the Year. “He just kind of power pitched and it was good. We didn’t play as clean of baseball as we’re capable of playing, but Braylon’s stuff was really good and Hickson’s stuff was really good, so it was a pitcher’s duel for most of the game.”
UTSA took an early 1-0 advantage in the game after a solo home run by Mason Lytle, the American Athletic Conference’s 2025 Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. Rice added solo runs in the fifth and sixth to move in front. Headed into the eighth inning, Hallmark called on his team to be more aggressive at the plate.
“We know Hickson is good,” Hallmark said. “We missed him last week when they came to play us, but his three starts prior to that, he goes eight innings, eight innings and nine innings. We were hoping to maybe get on him a little bit and we didn’t do much with him until the eighth. He was ahead of us the entire day from the second inning to the seventh and we were hitting behind the count. When I got them together, I said, ‘Guys, the only thing I see is we need to be ready to swing the bat from the first pitch.’ We were being a little passive early.”
After Miller was hit by a pitch, Lytle singled to center field on the third pitch of his at-bat and Taussig came up with his heroics on the second pitch of his.
“Me and Mason kind of talked about it before facing Hickson for that fourth time,” said Taussig, an AAC All-Conference First-Team honoree. “We wanted to try to string together a couple base hists and see if we could tie the game and go ahead. I was just looking for a pitch out over the plate and I got one.”
Taussig later scored on a single to left field by Norris McClure to give the Roadrunners some insurance and make the final 4-2 margin. Reliever Robert Orloski picked up his eighth win of the season to improve to 8-0 striking out three over the final 3.1 innings of work.
“Rob’s pretty solid, but it helps everybody relax a little bit when you have the two-run cushion,” Hallmark said. “A solo home run doesn’t tie you, so you can really just attack people at that point.”
It was yet another comeback for the resilient Roadrunners who have found numerous ways to win and overcome challenges.
“They’re making a habit of it,” Hallmark said. “I don’t take it for granted. When you fall behind to Hickson … I wasn’t sure we were going to win this game. It doesn’t surprise me when we come back because we’ve done it a few times. We just live in the moment, play nine innings and see what happens. These guys keep doing it. Happy to be along for the ride.”