Chase Mora has become Texas State’s all-time home run leader, surpassing Goldschmidt, who currently plays for the New York Yankees. <\/p>\n
SAN MARCOS, Texas \u2014 When the ball left the bat, Chase Mora knew it had a chance.<\/p>\n
The Texas State University senior watched as home run No. 37 sailed out of the park \u2014 a swing that officially made him the program\u2019s all-time home run leader, surpassing former Bobcat and current MLB star Paul Goldschmidt.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something you dream of,\u201d Mora said. \u201cI think ever since my freshman year, I knew I was kind of on pace to have a chance at it, and the closer I got, the more it kind of weighed on my shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n
The record-breaking hit capped a pursuit years in the making, but Mora said the moment brought more relief than pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I hit that one it was like getting that monkey off my shoulder and it just allows me to go play free,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For Mora, breaking the record carried extra meaning because of whose name he passed.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously any time you pass something that Paul Goldschmidt set is a pretty cool accomplishment,\u201d Mora said.<\/p>\n
Texas State head baseball coach Steven Trout said the program believed the milestone was possible long before the season started, though the focus inside the clubhouse remained on winning games.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe obviously anticipated it, knew it was going to happen,\u201d Trout said. \u201cBut once we got in the game, nobody was thinking about breaking the record.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Mora finally hit the home run, Trout admitted he didn’t feel the significance of the moment right away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe one that broke it, we were down 6 to 1 at the time,\u201d Trout said. \u201cSo honestly I was more fired up that we were ready to get back in this baseball game and then I realized, \u2018Oh, that was it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Not long after, Mora received congratulations from Goldschmidt himself in a video message shown during a ceremony at Bobcat Ballpark.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust wanted to send a big congratulations on breaking the Texas State record for career home runs,\u201d Goldschmidt said in the video. \u201cVery proud of you and look forward to many more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The path to becoming Texas State\u2019s home run king was not always smooth.<\/p>\n
Mora recalled one difficult game during his freshman season against Texas A&M when everything seemed to go wrong.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went 0 for 5,\u201d Mora said. \u201cFour strikeouts, grounded into a double play and committed three errors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mora said learning to move on from failure became one of the most important lessons of his college career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about staying in the present moment and just keep attacking every day,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Trout said that mentality is part of what stood out during Mora\u2019s recruitment. Originally recruited as a two-way player coming off Tommy John surgery, Mora quickly proved he was more than just a pitcher.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just knew kind of watching him, the guy was a gamer,\u201d Trout said. \u201cHe was a winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the record, Mora insists the accomplishment is about more than statistics.<\/p>\n
As he rounded the bases after the historic home run, he said his thoughts immediately went to his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a lot of family here actually, so just for them to be here and share that moment with them meant everything to me,\u201d Mora said.<\/p>\n
He specifically credited his parents and grandfather for helping shape both the player and person he has become.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom, she’s done everything she ever could to allow me to play this sport,\u201d Mora said. \u201cMy dad, ever since I was little, kind of instilled it in me \u2014 you can go as far as you want in this game. It just depends on how hard you work.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said his grandfather taught him the value of discipline and work ethic at an early age.<\/p>\n
Even with his name now at the top of the Texas State record book, Mora said he hopes the mark doesn’t stand forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope somebody eventually breaks it,\u201d Mora said, \u201cBecause that means this place is headed in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
For now, Mora says his focus remains on helping the Bobcats chase something bigger than records \u2014 a championship run and a trip to the postseason.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chase Mora has become Texas State’s all-time home run leader, surpassing Goldschmidt, who currently plays for the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-294412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}