The Horns were set to play the season’s first home game ahead of a major cold front, but weather in Austin kept it from happening.
After moving up to No. 16 in the D1Baseball Top 25 poll on Monday, the Texas Longhorns open the season at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Tuesday against the Houston Cougars on SEC Network+ at 5:30 p.m. Central, a start time moved up an hour to beat a cold front that will arrive in Austin to drop the temperature into the 30s by 10 p.m.
The move didn’t work, though, as the game was initially delayed due to weather and then canceled.
Texas was set to return to the Forty Acres after a largely successful weekend that saw the Longhorns win the Shriners Children’s College Classic with victories over the Rebels and Cowboys as redshirt junior left-hander Luke Harrison earned SEC Pitcher of the Week honors for his 6.1 shutout innings on Saturday and freshman third baseman Adrian Rodriguez was named the co-SEC Freshman of the Week after slashing .429/.467/1.071 with two home runs and three RBI over the weekend.
Rodriguez did go through some growing pains, striking out in each of his first three at bats against Louisville before committing an error against Ole Miss amidst some other difficult plays he wasn’t able to make.
Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle believes that third base is the second-hardest position to play in college baseball after catcher because of how often the ball has spin on it or is hit harder than coaches can replicate in practice with a fungo.
“It’s a new position for him — he was a shortstop in high school, so we’ve just got to keep running him out there,” Schlossnagle said on the Around the Horns podcast.
The strikeout issues that Rodriguez experienced on Friday before hitting the go-ahead home run in the 10th inning were emblematic of some struggles with the team’s overall approach as the Horns struck out 27 times in the first two games and reached double digits in strikeouts in all three games.
“I thought we were drastically out of character in that game offensively — or at least the character that I want us to have or we that we want to have — swinging out of the strike zone,” Schlossnagle said.
The frustration for the Texas head coach surrounded how the team reacted much differently to a game environment than they had in practice. Schlossnagle also acknowledged that because he wants his players to work deep into counts, his teams are going to strike out as a result of hitting frequently with two strikes.
By Sunday, though, associate head coach Noah Cain came into the dugout saying, “Now that looks like our offense.”
“We’re having deep at bats, we’re laying off the really tough pitches, and then when we do swing, hitting the ball hard — we had some extra-base hits, we had some homers,” Schlossnagle said.
Taking the right approach in the batter’s box didn’t pay off for everyone. Sophomore second baseman Ethan Mendoza came out of the weekend batting .200, but the overall batting average is less important to Schlossnagle than his quality at-bat percentage. Of Mendoza’s 13 trips to the plate, he had 10 quality at bats with five of the seven balls that he put in play coming off the bat at 96 miles per hour or more, including one flyout that Schlossnagle believes would be a home run at the Disch.
On the mound, the biggest disappointments were the inability to close out Friday’s game in the 10th inning, with Schlossnagle admitting that he should have put senior right-hander Andre Duplantier in for senior left-hander Will Mercer instead of allowing Mercer to pitch into a second inning, and the performance of sophomore left-hander Kade Bing on Sunday.
Bing only recorded two outs before leaving the game having hit two batters and allowed a walk, an uncharacteristic performance for a pitcher that Schlossnagle called one of the best strike throwers on the team. The culprit? Adrenaline leading to overthrowing — Bing hit the first batter he faced with a 94 mph fastball that is the hardest pitch he’s ever thrown, according to Schlossnagle. It came after Bing was throwing harder in warmups than he did in intersquad games.
One of the highlights for Schlossnagle out of the bullpen was sophomore right-hander Thomas Burns, an Arizona State transfer who started for the Sun Devils last year. Burns retired both batters he faced against Ole Miss and although he could start for Texas, coming out of the bullpen allows the 6’3, 230-pounder to ramp up his velocity.
The Longhorns also received strong outings from freshman left-hander Dylan Volantis, a future starter for Texas as he improves his physical conditioning, and junior right-hander Max Grubbs, who emerged as the team’s No. 1 starter last year. Freshman right-hander Drew Rerick also had a positive appearance in throwing an inning against Oklahoma State.
“It’s going to be a mix-and-match deal until we until guys start to separate themselves a little bit,” Schlossnagle said of the bullpen roles.
Against Houston, Schlossnagle wants to get a look at some pitchers who didn’t throw over the weekend — sophomore right-hander Hudson Hamilton, freshman right-hander Jason Flores, junior right-hander Connor McCreery, and freshman left-hander Bryce Navarre.
Sophomore Easton Winfield was set to return to the lineup as well after Schlossnagle wanted to get some at bats for freshman Cole Chamberlain on Sunday. Schlossnagle also wanted to get some playing time for junior second baseman Jayden Duplantier and potentially some other players, a group that could include sophomore corner infielders Casey Borba and Jaquae Stewart.
Houston was going to enter Tuesday’s game at 2-1 on the season, taking a home series against Minnesota after bouncing back from a 14-3 loss on Friday. Junior Carsten Sabathia, the son of Hall of Fame pitcher CC Sabathia, hit the first home run of the season for the Cougars on Friday, while Big 12 Preseason Newcomer of the Year Cade Climie, a Blinn transfer, hit .273 with a double over the weekend, but also struck out five times in 11 at bats.