The Horns have lost as many midweeks game as conference games this season and have to avoid a third midweek defeat with a good Vaqueros team in town.
For the first time in three years, the Texas Longhorns will play a game as the No. 1-ranked team in the country when the UTRGV Vaqueros come to Austin for a midweek game on Tuesday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
Beyond the challenges posed by facing a good Southland Conference team with a 25-10 record, there are other compelling storylines that don’t typically exist against midweek opponents.
Texas junior catcher Rylan Galvan will face off against his twin brother Rene, an outfielder for UTRGV who is in his first season with the Vaqueros after transferring in from Tyler Junior College. Although Rene doesn’t have the raw natural power of his twin brother, he is a good hitter, batting .313 with nine doubles and demonstrating the primary similarity with Rylan — his command of the strike zone, drawing 19 walks against 26 strikeouts for an on-base percentage of .459.
Other Sinton ties include sophomore designated hitter Jaquae Stewart playing because of injuries and another transfer from junior college playing for UTRGV in weekend starter Wyatt Wiatrek.
The two head coach are always familiar with each other because UTRGV head coach Derek Matlock, who served as a volunteer assistant under Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle for two years at TCU prior to stints at Texas State and West Virginia. Matlock took over the Vaqueros program in 2018 and may have his best team this year since arriving in the Valley.
Texas is the third ranked opponent UTRGV has faced this season after beating then-No. 20 Dallas Baptist 15-5 in Arlington in the first midweek game of 2025 and dropping a 3-1 contest to then-No. 22 Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg last month.
The Vaqueros have a good offensive team this season with a .314 team batting average led by designated hitter Armani Raygoza, who is slashing .382/.464/.695 with a team-leading 10 home runs and 40 RBI.
Right-hander Jacob Limas (1-1, 4.68 ERA) will take the mound for UTRGV for his seventh start with a 1.72 WHIP and .306 opponent batting average.
For Texas, sophomore left-hander Kade Bing (1-0, 3.12 ERA) is looking for a bounce-back performance after only facing six batters against Houston Christian last week because of his concerning fastball velocity sitting at 84 miles per hour after starting the season throwing adrenaline-fueled 94-mph fastballs as the Sunday starter at Globe Life Field.
Bing told Schlossnagle that he was feeling fine last week and he’ll have a chance to prove it on Tuesday in the wake of three consecutive strong performances in previous starts against UTSA, Sam Houston, and Texas State.
The midweek game also provides key opportunities for players like Stewart, junior Jayden Duplantier, and sophomore Easton Winfield. All three are batting less than .200, but with junior right fielder Max Belyeu still out and freshman Adrian Rodriguez clearly laboring with his lingering injury in his return against Kentucky over the weekend before sitting out Sunday’s game, Texas needs more positive performances from those players to maintain the team’s impressive results in conference play.
“In order for us to have a great year, those marquee players need to stay healthy. If they don’t or if they’re down for a while, it doesn’t mean we can’t win, we just have to win differently,” Schlossnagle said on Monday in his weekly appearance on the Around the Horns podcast.
Schlossnagle noted the tight games and frustrations caused by those injuries, as well as some other players being banged up, so it’s perhaps not a coincidence that the midweek loss to Texas State came directly after the injuries sustained by Belyeu and Rodriguez.
Right now, the result is Texas having to survive poor results at the plate from a corner outfield spot and the designated hitter position that should ideally produce much better results.
But until the Longhorns can regain some health this season and develop better program depth in future years, they have to hope that Winfield can regain the form he showed last year as a freshman, Duplantier can play good situational baseball, and Stewart can flash some of his power, his best asset as a hitter.
First pitch on Tuesday is at 6:30 p.m. Central on SEC Network+ in an all-time series that Texas leads 54-7.