UTSA Baseball Players Show Their Connection and Support to Coach Hallmark in a Meaningful Way

Amor Fati. It is a Latin term, meaning love of fate or love of one’s fate. It speaks to the attitude of someone who goes beyond accepting what happens in life. The individual who practices Amor Fati embraces and loves it. 

It is also a statement that has been popping up as a signature from several members of the 2025 UTSA Baseball team. For several others, it will have a lasting physical mark as well. 

Often in sports, coaches will have several “isms” that they endorse. This can be a philosophy, phrase, or mindset. UTSA Baseball Head Coach Pat Hallmark is no different. 

Since his arrival on campus in 2020, the Roadrunner faithful have become familiar with his now perhaps patented expressions. “Control what you can control”. “That’s the way we like it”. “Doubles and Jacks”. And maybe a controversial one from opposing fan bases, “up”. 

Several of these “Hallmark-isms” can be applied beyond the diamond. There are a lot of circumstances that take place in the game of baseball that are out of your control. Baseball is a beautiful sport to teach those lessons because life after baseball is similar. 

When you listen to Coach Hallmark talk about past and present players, it isn’t difficult to realize he cares about more than just winning and losing on the field with them. 

Yes, he cares a lot about that. Hallmark has been more candid this year that he asks a lot of his players, that he can be hard on them, and he knows that with his coaches he can be not the easiest to work with. 

This approach is not for everyone. Hallmark also understands that. For those that it’s not for, they likely find a new home. For those that accept it, it results in a hard-nosed, perhaps old school mentality that to the outsiders comes across outdated but cultivates a special bond between player and coach. A bond that they’ll never forget. 

The end of the 2024 season left a sour taste. For a second consecutive season, the UTSA Baseball team limped into the conference tournament and had an early exit, not winning a game. With UTSA’s RPI lacking both times, there was no chance they were getting a coveted at-large bid to the Regional Tournament. 

Almost immediately following the conclusion of the 2024 season, the transfer portal gate was wide open. UTSA saw a mass exodus that had yet to occur in Coach Hallmark’s tenure at UTSA. 

When the dust settled, fourteen players wanted a new home. It was a mixed bag. A few players wanted the opportunity to play at a power conference school. Some wanted a fresh start, while several did not jive with that beforementioned coaching approach. 

It left UTSA with a summer roster of 17 players, needing 23 new faces to complete the 40-man roster. There was work to be done. Fast forward to the Fall of 2024. 

While there would be plenty of new faces, there were some core roster pieces returning. Zach Royse, Braylon Owens, James Taussig, and Mason Lytle were some of those players who decided to remain at UTSA and continue playing for Hallmark. 

In putting this piece together, I reached out to now former UTSA Roadrunner, Mason Lytle. He said that “a lot of the guys in the fall were very high on the season”. As is somewhat typical in sports, those confident Roadrunners came to an agreement. Lytle continued by saying “we said if we make a Super, we would get matching tattoos.” 

It was certainly a pact that would not come easy to achieve. Since the program conception in 1992, the Roadrunners had only made three regional tournaments. They had never won a regional game, let alone made a Super Regional. 

The promise had been made, and it was time to continue putting in the work in the months leading up to the 2025 season. 

Despite a lackluster opening weekend, the Roadrunners held strong. Both individuals and a team found that confidence and ability that they recognized they had back in the fall. The results were a program record winning streak, a program record for single season wins, and the program’s first ever regional game win. 

They didn’t stop there, however. And the deal made amongst the players wasn’t to win a regional game, it was to win their regional. The challenge was accomplished on Sunday evening when for the second time that weekend, UTSA defeated host and #2 overall Texas to stamp their ticket to the program’s first ever Super Regional appearance. 

As for the tattoo, Lytle said “we knew it would be a bird”. It was that special relationship with Coach Hallmark however that would add the final piece to the puzzle. A symbol of how much Hallmark means to them. 

While they fought the way that they did all season, the Super Regionals did not go UTSA’s way. They ran into a tough, disciplined, and defensive juggernaut in UCLA and the magical season came to an end. 

Along with “Hallmarkisms”, he also sends daily quotes to the team. “It (Amor Fati) was the last daily quote he (Hallmark) sent us when we were leaving LA” said Lytle. A fitting battle cry for when an unexpected setback ends your magical season. 

It is a statement that Hallmark lives by as well. Lytle concluded by saying “we decided to add Amor Fati because honestly Hallmark has it tatted on him, and it just made the tattoo look better.” 

Just how many players decided to follow through with this tattoo? Seventeen. Seventeen players wanted to cement (or ink) their love for Hallmark permanently with a statement he himself lives by, paired with the mascot of the team they played for during a season they will never forget, involving the game they love. 

When I first heard that 17 players had done this, my immediate thought was that it embodies how much love and appreciation they have for their head coach. So much so that they wanted to remember forever something that connects them with him. 

The lack of a tattoo from others doesn’t diminish those feelings they have for Coach Hallmark. Twelve months after the mass exodus UTSA saw by way of the transfer portal in 2024, and the 2025 portal was completely uneventful in terms of departures. 

With this success comes other (good) hurdles. UTSA will wait to see if some of their players who still have eligibility and are draft eligible hear their name called in the MLB Draft. But for now, thanks in part to a huge commitment by UTSA administration for dedicated revenue sharing for baseball, the Roadrunners will have several of their core players from 2025 returning for 2026.

Along with some promising recruits coming into the fold, it could be another special season. It could make 2025 the norm rather than an occasional outcome. 

For now, it will be continuing to have that Junkyard Dog mentality. The less fancy way of saying Amor Fati. 

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