Texas State infielder Chase Mora (2) steps up to bat during the game against Niagara University at Bobcat Ballpark on Saturday, February. 14, 2026 in San Marcos, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
As Texas State baseball infielder Chase Mora walked out for his first at-bat in Saturday’s 12-9 win over Marshall, George Straight’s soothing twang blared over the speakers inside Irvine Rasmussen Ballpark.
“I ain’t here for a long time,” Straight sang into the setting sun. “I’m here for a good time.”
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Texas State infielder Chase Mora (2) misses a catch during the game against Louisiana at Bobcat Ballpark on Saturday, March. 21, 2026 in San Marcos, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Mora is a Bobcats legend for what he’s done in San Marcos. He’s the program leader in home runs, RBIs and starts. In the NIL era where players can set themselves up for the future by chasing money at larger programs, Mora remained loyal to the maroon and gold.
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For everything Mora has done at Texas State, his freshman season in 2023 is seared into the memories of every faithful fan who witnessed it. Coming off Tommy John surgery, a young Mora launched 17 home runs that season and recorded an on-base plus slugging percentage of 1.035. He looked like a star who’d carry the Bobcats for years to come.
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Texas State infielder Chase Mora (2) hits a pitch during the game against Niagara University at Bobcat Ballpark on Saturday, February. 14, 2026 in San Marcos, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Mora’s never matched that production since then. Though he’s been an above-average player, he told the American-Statesman that he spent the better part of his career chasing the ghost of that 2023 form. But as he soaked in his final days as a Bobcat, he’s come to appreciate what he has done, not what might’ve been.
“You’re gonna fail 70% of the time in this game,” Mora said. “Just understanding you can be the best player one year and be the worst player the next.”
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Chase Mora’s unexpected breakout
Texas State recruited Mora as a two-way player. As he rehabilitated from his surgery in the fall of his freshman season, head coach Steven Trout said he didn’t notice anything unusual about the recruit from Tomball. When Mora came back for the spring, he said he felt something click in the batter’s box. He earned a starting job as a freshman and came out of the gates red hot.
Mora hit three homers in his first two games. He had four home runs on four hits against North Dakota State. In mid-March, he went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and his eighth dinger of the year against a Southern Miss team that eventually made the NCAA super regionals.
“Just started hitting homers from the get-go, and I think a lot of it … you become very confident in yourself,” Trout said.
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The torque in Mora’s swing generates more power than his 6-foot-2, 167-pound frame would suggest he has. But as a self-proclaimed contact hitter in high school, he didn’t expect to slug as much as he did in 2023.
That season, Mora had the support of veteran teammates such as Jose Gonzales, Davis Powell and August Ramirez, allowing him to swing freely and often. His opponents didn’t have a scouting book on him.
“It wasn’t just him carrying the team,” Trout said.
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Texas State infielder Chase Mora (2) reaches for a ground ball during the game against Louisiana at Bobcat Ballpark on Saturday, March. 21, 2026 in San Marcos, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Figuring things out has taken time
Expectations were high for Mora entering his sophomore year, but he fell off hard. His batting average dropped from .316 to .251. He hit six home runs and had an on-base plus slugging of .710, down from 1.035.
Trout said teams had collected a year’s worth of data on him. Mora thought he’d have more chances to hit, but pitchers began keying in on his tendencies and exploiting his weaknesses, and his chase rate went up.
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“I started swinging at the pitcher’s pitch more than anything,” Mora said.
Baseball players are notoriously fickle. While some prefer to stick with their swing, only changing out of absolute desperation, others are tinkerers. Mora is the latter.
Trout said that when something’s not working, Mora is always searching for that little detail that might fix things. The senior said the best hitters can figure out what they’re doing wrong by reviewing their film. Whether it’s shifting the position of his hands or switching to a toe-tap, he’s looking for the adjustment that’ll make things click like they did that fateful spring. To this day, he’ll watch his freshman year swing, trying to see what he did differently.
Sometimes it leads to better results. Mora bounced back in his junior season, improving his OPS to .834. But it still wasn’t quite what he knew his best could be. And the core of his issues didn’t lie in a physical adjustment.
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Mora loves Texas State. He loves baseball. During his worst struggles, he’d forget to enjoy himself.
“I took it too seriously at times,” Mora said. “This was all I had; this is what I gave everything to.”
Texas State infielder Chasse Mora (2) tags Louisiana outfielder Donovan LaSalle (2) during the game at Bobcat Ballpark on Saturday, March. 21, 2026 in San Marcos, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Learning to relax has helped
The pressure mounted upon Mora as he entered his final season. He remained at Texas State despite the ever-looming portal and he was within six home runs of breaking former Bobcat and current New York Yankee Paul Goldschmidt’s all-time home run record of 36. Initially, Mora said he was able to push the thought of 37 to the back of his mind. When he tied Goldschmidt’s mark in the opener against Georgia State, things got real.
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“OK,” he thought. “This is going to start weighing on me a bit.”
Mora made history on a 1-0 count against Georgia State, sending a pitch over the left-center field wall. He said it was a huge relief, and his dad, Casey Mora, got to witness it alongside the rest of his family.
“It was one of those surreal moments,” his father said.
New York Yankees’ Paul Goldschmidt watches his three-run home run against the Seattle Mariners during the sixth inning of a baseball game, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, in Seattle.
Lindsey Wasson/Associated Press
But soon after, Mora fell into a slump. He went 5-for-49 at the plate the rest of April. His struggles mirrored those of Texas State, which lost three consecutive Sun Belt series.
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Trout had a decision to make for the South Alabama series. He recognized how much Mora means to the program, but the Bobcats needed to win the series. It’s not that Mora wasn’t trying to make things work; in fact, Trout thought it was the opposite.
“That’s the thing about people when they care, sometimes they try too hard,” he said.
Mora said he hadn’t been benched for a home game since his freshman season. He understood the reasoning behind the decision. That didn’t make it any less frustrating for him.
“I know it was not what Chase wanted to do. Chase wanted to be on that field,” Casey Mora said.
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Mora recognized that after he had broken the record, he had gotten away from his approach. Subconsciously, he was trying harder to hit home runs, more so than when he was still trailing Goldschmidt.
Trout said he wasn’t sure when he’d play Mora again. But the Tomball native, released from his own expectations, waited for his number to be called, fine-tuning his swing in batting practice. All he wanted to do was help his team win, and his chance came soon enough.
Trout inserted Mora back into the lineup for Texas State’s matchup against Baylor in early May. He went 2-for-3 with two RBIs, kicking off a stretch where the Bobcats would win eight of their next nine games.
“A lot of times it’s just getting that reset, taking a deep breath, realizing, hey, this game’s hard, but I’m making it way too hard,” Trout said.
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Texas State’s season is nearly over, and Mora never quite realized the superstar potential he once flashed. But does that make him any less of a Bobcat? The possibility of what he could’ve been does not diminish what he did accomplish during his four years in San Marcos.
Fans will remember the Grand Slam against Texas in 2025. The walk-off over Houston in Daikin Park in 2024. The loyalty he showed to the university, his refusal to shy away from his struggles and his passion for the program. That, more than any material accomplishment, is what makes him a Texas State legend.
“He’s family,” Trout said. “And he always will be.”
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