With so much still in front of them, the Texas Southern Tigers are playing some of their best baseball right now.
There are legit aspirations to overtake the dominant Bethune-Cookman squad for the SWAC championship if things fall right in this latter part of the season. But how the season is shaping up is nothing like its chaotic start when longtime coach Michael Robertson suddenly retired before the spring season began.
“It’s a whole new team going into this season. We definitely have the chemistry outside of the field, and not just in the field. We get together after the field and go have lunch, go have dinner together to keep the chemistry going. I think the brotherhood is very strong here.”
TSU infielder Jonathan Trejo
There was no press release, heart-to-heart, or announcement that Robertson had decided to step down after 18 years. It was just a dose of reality that the players had to deal with after returning to school from winter break.
“It was a big shock, but at the same time, last year and the year before, there were rumors because Rob was gone throughout the season,” said TSU pitcher Justin Mayes. “So we weren’t really surprised, but at the same time, when we did get a new head coach, all of the pressure just released off the team.”
Credit: Credit: Jimmie Aggison/Houston Defender
Enter Ely Gallego, who was brought aboard last year as the volunteer assistant coach and has a background as a Division III coach, as the Tigers’ interim head coach. Instead of the program taking a step back and getting stuck in a stagnant space, TSU has seemed to thrive under the freedom and trust that has come with Gallego’s leadership.
Fresh off of winning the series against rival Prairie View, the Tigers (21-16 overall, 15-6 SWAC) sit tied in a three-way tie second place with Southern and Florida A&M and just a few games behind Bethune-Cookman in the SWAC standings with nine games remaining in the regular season.
“It’s been a huge change going from Coach Rob to Coach Ely,” said infielder Jonathan Trejo, a product of Langham Creek. “Different perspectives, different signs, different on the field.
“But I think it’s going really smooth. I think all of the guys are really liking the changes.”
The result has been increased production, especially at the plate, where the Tigers lead the league in batting (.319), home runs (42), slugging percentage (.484), and on-base percentage (0.440). The offensive production has been led by Christopher Chavez (.393 batting average, 35 RBI, and a .492 slugging percentage), Byron Robins .397 batting average, 9 home runs, league-leading 43 RBI, .714 slugging percentage, 33 walks), Miguel Morales (.382 batting average, 32 RBI, and .455 slugging percentage) and Trejo (.368 batting average, 8 HR, and 37 RBI), who all rank in the SWAC’s Top 10 in batting.
They have been solid on the mound with a rotation that includes Mayes (3.23 ERA) with a 5-1 record, a league-leading 69 strikeouts, and a No.2 SWAC ranking, Joshua Pena (4.58 ERA) with a 5-1 season mark, Joshua Prieto (5.40 ERA), and Jose Luccioni (6.00) with a 3-0 record.
If there has been an area of weakness, it has been on defense, where they have committed 50 errors.
Gallego, who came aboard with no idea of Robertson’s retirement plans, says overall that the 35 players he inherited have been a joy to work with.
“It helps when you have an older group of kids to be able to handle something like that,” said Gallego, who played at Sul Ross, spent some time in the minors, and then served as head coach at Sul Ross prior to coming to TSU. “They’ve adjusted well. Not much has changed. Our offense is very similar, so it’s not a huge adjustment offensively.”
Credit: Jimmie Aggison
The fact that the players have adjusted quickly to Gallego’s more laid-back approach to baseball and dealing with the ups and downs hasn’t been much of a surprise. Gallego set the tone as soon as he learned from interim athletic director Paula Jackson that he would be replacing Robertson for the season.
The message was clear about how to proceed.
“This is their career, this is their opportunity to play college baseball,” said Gallego, who isn’t focusing on his future but seems to desire the position permanently. “You only get four years to play this game. So, no matter who is sitting in this position, it’s not really about us. It’s about them and what they want out of their careers.
“Just kind of helping them understand that because head coaches change. You see that all across baseball. But their experience doesn’t. That’s the biggest thing I was trying to convey to them. It’s about your experience and what you want out of your four years of playing college baseball.”
The message seemed to sink in with the players.
“He lets us play freely,” said senior catcher Elijah Rodriguez, who transferred to TSU last year from Mary Hardin-Baylor. “We felt like a team before, not to speak down on the previous coach, but we felt very constricted in what we could do and always nervous.
“We were fearing to fail because we were going to be punished one way or another. But Coach Ely is different. It’s kind of like we can play more freely. He lets us do more of what we can do and not as restricted, letting us just play and not holding us back either way.”
Feeling freer has translated to more success on the field this season, with the Tigers being locked into a three-way tie for first place with the two Florida schools earlier in April. And now having a chance to compete for the regular season and conference tournament championship on the heels of a down season in 2025.
“It’s translated insanely,” Rodriguez said. “It’s definitely different this season compared to last season. Just the energy, the environment, and just how everybody is, just coming in and out of the field and the weight room, too. Everybody is just loving it so far this year.”
But there is still a feeling of not getting too far ahead of themselves because Bethune-Cookman has knocked off SEC foes Florida and LSU – both in the Top 25 – this season, and a season-ending series against Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Fla., awaits.
“It actually feels very comfortable, but you can’t be too comfortable because you can’t be too comfortable,” Trejo said. “We have a few weeks left, and we are going into a tough part of our schedule where our opponents are the top opponents in our conference. It’s going to get tougher from here, but we are just going to keep heads down and keep going.”
“I think sometimes we are our worst enemy in making mistakes and stuff like that. But when we play games and play our brand of baseball and staying with us, we do some pretty good things.”
TSU interim coach Ely Gallego
Gallego believes in this team and its chances to win big as long as the Tigers remain focused and determined to finish the season the right way.
“I think this team can really be good,” Gallego said. “It’s one thing I talk to them about every day is be consistent every day, regardless of what happens, regardless of the score on the scoreboard, just be consistently us.
“I think if we can just be consistently us, I think we can really do some things.”
