CINCINNATI — San Diego baseball alum Brycen Mautz has been recalled from Triple-A Memphis by the St. Louis Cardinals and is set to make his Major League debut, the organization announced on Sunday morning.

Mautz will be the Cardinals' starting pitcher on Sunday afternoon against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park, making him the 27th player in USD program history to reach the Major Leagues.

A San Diego native who attended nearby Westview High School, Mautz etched his name into Torero history by helping USD secure the 2022 West Coast Conference Tournament Championship and an upset win over Vanderbilt as a draft-eligible sophomore in 2022.

He earned All-WCC First Team, Perfect Game Third Team All-American, All-WCC Academic First Team, and both WCC and Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week honors that season, appearing in 16 of San Diego's games on the mound while making a team-high 15 starts and posting a 3.87 ERA across 90.2 total innings pitched. Mautz led both USD and the WCC in wins (10), strikeouts (129), starts (15) and innings pitched (90.2) in 2022, and he finished his sophomore campaign ranked 28th nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (5.86), 11th in total strikeouts (129), and 14th in strikeouts per nine innings (12.81).

Mautz concluded his college career with a masterful start at the 2022 NCAA Corvallis Regional against perennial powerhouse Vanderbilt, leading the Toreros to a thrilling 3-2 win over the Commodores at Goss Stadium with seven innings of one-run ball, walking just one and striking out five along the way.

After being selected in the second round of the 2022 MLB Draft (59th overall pick) by the Cardinals, Mautz found almost immediate success in St. Louis' minor-league system, earning the organization's 2025 Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award after posting a 2.98 ERA across 25 starts in Double-A. He picked up right right where he left off in 2026 with Triple-A Memphis, pitching to a 2.90 ERA with 43 strikeouts in 40.1 innings before Sunday's call-up.

His selection at pick No. 59 in 2022's draft remains the highest a San Diego player has been taken since 2015. Mautz, one of 156 players in USD history to either have his name called in the MLB Draft or sign with a Major League team since 1964, is the second Torero to have played under head coach Brock Ungricht at USD to reach the Major Leagues (Chase Meidroth, Chicago White Sox, 2025).