Musings from the Disch
First weekend of SEC play has been completed and it was a doozy. The Longhorns earned a solid series win over an Ole Miss squad that I thought was under rated coming into the weekend due to their ability to pitch. The injury to Saturday Cade Townsend certainly helped swing the balance back to Texas as both teams used a number of arms during the Friday night extra inning affair.
While no team ever wants to lose, if you are going to lose, you want the team to take something away from it and learn from what the causation was. Fans of Texas learned that there is no give up in this squad and that to beat Texas, it will take an elite level performance in all areas to do so. Top to bottom, the Horns have shown that they have depth in numbers out of the bullpen and the lineup will battle every single time to earn a free base or find a way to score.
In general, if this weekend of SEC play is any indication of what the season will be, strap in and prepare yourself as it will be a wild ride. There appears to be much more parity across the league this season and there certainly is never an easy one, no matter what the record states.
While it is way to early to be looking at RPI and such, the Horns did get some solid boosts from their non-conference opponents as USC Upstate took the series against a High Point team that took two of three from Florida last weekend. In addition, UC Davis earned a massive series win against UC Santa Barbara over the weekend. Coastal Carolina also went 4-0 on the weekend as they took down a ranked Wake Forest squad on Tuesday and then swept App State over the weekend. The lone Debbie downer was Texas State who got swept by UL Monroe over the weekend.
Around the Horns with Coach Schlossnagle
YouTube Link – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbL0AnsI5ew&pp=0gcJCcUKAYcqIYzv
Offensive Breakdown
Carson Tinney: 5-14 (.357 BA), 3 RBI, 1 BB, 4 K
Anthony Pack: 5-13 (.385 BA), 4 RBI, 1 BB, 2 K
Casey Borba: 5-14 (.357 BA), 3 RBI, 4 K
Jayden Duplantier: 4-7 (.571 BA), 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 K
Ashton Larson: 2-3 (.667 BA), 2 BB, 1 K
Overall, a really nice weekend against one of the better pitching staffs in the SEC. A team batting average of .315 will help you win a lot of games, especially when paired with a pitching staff like Texas. There were 26 strikeouts over the weekend, but 18 of those came on Friday night. On Saturday, the Horns struck out only twice, which is mighty impressive. Borba has very extremely impressive lately at the plate and he is really seeing the ball well. Sunday was a bit of a break out day for Tinney. Texas will certainly want him to carry that forward into this weekend’s series against Auburn. Props to Jayden Duplantier who continues to put together solid at-bats and when he made contact had good results
Pitching Breakdown
Game One – Ruger Riojas (4.1 IP, 6 hits, 3 runs, 1 BB, 8 K)
Game Two – Luke Harrison (7 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 1 BB, 8 K)
Game Three – Dylan Volantis (6 IP, 5 hits, 1 run, 1 BB, 11 K)
Rotation Performance:
Career performances from both Luke Harrison and Dylan Volantis this weekend. The great thing about the depth of this squad is that you may get to one pitcher, but the odds of getting past two of the three or all three is very small. The Horns rotation really showed out on Saturday and Sunday after an extra innings affair that chewed up bullpen arms on Friday.
Bullpen:
Haiden Leffew: 2.2 IP, 1 hit, 1 BB, 3 K
Ethan Walker: 2.1 IP, 2 hits, 2 K
Brett Crossland: 1.1 IP, 1 run, 4 K
Sam Cozart: 3 IP, 2 hits, 1 run, 5 K
Other than a night to forget on Friday, which really came down to one inning, the Horns pitched very well against Ole Miss, racking up 42 strikeouts over the weekend
Takeaways from the Weekend
The Horns got punched in the face on Friday night. Make no doubt about that. They didn’t have the best game at the plate where they struck out 18 times against the pre-season SEC pitcher of the year (Hunter Elliott) and didn’t fare terribly well against the Ole Miss bullpen. The lesson learned is that they never backed down, never quit and fought till the very end, with several chances to win it. In some ways, the loss was a good thing for them as it helped recenter the pitching staff and forced guys like Luke Harrison and Dylan Volantis to show why they were so highly thought of. Overall, an impressive series win over Ole Miss for the Horns to kick off SEC play.
Useless Stat(s) of the Day
Texas is 17-3 as a team when LHP Luke Harrison is on the mound. For the issues and complaints about his performances this season, that is the kind of consistency you want and need to win at a high level.
The continued power production at the plate is fascinating as Texas is not an overly tooled up team for power numbers, but the data tells me they absolutely are.
- Texas has hit 35 HRs in 19 games which is 1.84 per game
- In 2025, the Horns hit 29 HRs in 19 games, or 1.52 per game
- In 2024, the Horns hit 34 HRs in 19 games, or 1.78 per game
- In 2023, the Horns hit 16 HRs in 19 games, or 0.84 per game
- In 2022, the Horns hit 21 HRs in 19 games, or 1.10 per game
Teams that impressed this weekend
- Georgia Tech – took two of three against Clemson
- Arkansas – big series win over Mississippi State at home
- Florida State – swept Wake Forest in style
- Kentucky – swept Alabama, impressive way to start SEC play
Teams that disappointed this weekend
- Southern Miss – disappointing series loss to Arkansas State after they have been so good this season
- Wake Forest – went 0-4 on the weekend with loss to Coastal Carolina and then got swept by Florida State
- LSU – beat Vandy on Sunday, but lost the series overall as their pitching continues to struggle
- TCU – lost the series to Arizona State, though they were lucky to only lose star OF Brunson for two weeks
- UTSA – lost the series to UT-Arlington, in which Coach Hallmark said he was embarrassed after the Fri night loss
- Texas State – Bobcats got swept by UL Monroe this past weekend…
- Oklahoma State – how they have fallen off, getting swept by UCF
- Tennessee – special mention here due to the ending of the Georgia game in which the batter thought it was a no doubter to walk it off, only for the LF to rob the Vols of a 2 run walk off HR…meanwhile back at the plate
Mid-Week Preview
Opponent: Tarleton State (12-7, 0-0 WAC)
Date: Tues March 17th
Time: 630pm
Where: Disch-Falk Field (Austin)
TV: SEC Network+
History:
All-Time Record: Texas 4-0
Last Met: 1997
2025 Record: 24-32 (12-12 WAC)
Season Snapshot:
vs. Le Moyne (3-0)
vs. Arkansas (0-1)
vs. South Dakota State (1-2)
vs. UIW (1-0)
vs. Creighton (1-1)
vs. Texas State (0-1)
vs. Baylor (1-0)
at New Mexico (4-0)
vs. Houston Christian (1-2)
Opponent Notes:
- Picked 6th out of 7 teams in the WAC
- 117 in RPI and 149 in SOS
- Nearly every game of Tarleton State is a bullpen game. Rarely do they have a starter that goes more than 3 or 4 innings
- Former Texas rosteree Kobe Minchey now plays for Tarleton State
Game Prediction:
Texas wins this one with ease
Pitching Matchups:
Texas TBA – my expectation is that Jason Flores gets the start
Tarleton State TBA – I have no clue who they are going to start at the moment
Bullpen Leaders:
Tai Phetluangsy (1-0, 0.00 ERA, 8 apps, 10.1 IP)
Conner Doucet (1-0, 1.08 ERA, 6 apps, 8.1 IP)
Aden Lucas (0-0, 1.13 ERA, 5 apps, 8 IP)
Ethan Jaques (2-0, 3.60 ERA, 6 apps, 15 IP)
Anthony Treto (1-0, 4.26 ERA, 6 apps, 12.2 IP)
Karson Davis (3-0, 4.97 ERA, 8 apps, 12.2 IP)
Jackson Elizondo (0-0, 5.79 ERA, 7 apps, 9.1 IP)
Andrew Hardin (0-0, 6.17 ERA, 9 apps, 11.2 IP)
Offensive Leaders:
Rayner Heinrich (.387 BA, 1.215 OPS, 5 HR, 18 RBI)
>> Father Steve played baseball at Texas (93-94) and his sister Reilly is a two-time national champion at Texas (2022 & 2023)
Slade McCloud (.375 BA, 1.072 OPS, 2 HR, 16 RBI, 10-13 SB)
Kendyl Johnson (.359 BA, 1.052 OPS, 1 HR, 11 RBI)
Carson Lorch (.351 BA, .941 OPS, 2 HR, 20 RBI)
Sergio Guerra (.288 BA, .913 OPS, 3 HR, 20 RBI)
Weekend Prediction Lookback
In non-SEC play, I went 4-4 (overall record is now 29-10)
In SEC play, I went 5-3
SEC Weekend Recap
- Alabama – got swept by Kentucky
- Arkansas – beat Mississippi State home to take the series
- Auburn – swept Missouri, though it was closer than expected
- Florida – swept a pitiful South Carolina team
- Georgia – took two of three from Tennessee with all-timer on Sunday
- Kentucky – swept Bama – this Kentucky team might just be the real deal this season
- LSU – lost two of three to Vanderbilt, salvaging a Sunday win
- Mississippi State – lost two of three at Arkansas
- Missouri – got swept by Auburn, but played it closer than expected
- Oklahoma – took two of three against Texas A&M in a hotly contested series
- Ole Miss – beat Texas in extra innings on Friday, but lost the series
- South Carolina – got swept by Florida as their pitiful form continues under Mainieri
- Tennessee – lost the series to Georga in dramatic fashion
- Texas – lost Friday in extras, but bounced back to win the series
- Texas A&M – lost the hotly contested series to Oklahoma
- Vanderbilt – took the series against LSU, losing the Sunday finale
Conference Standings:
- Kentucky (3-0)
- Auburn (3-0)
- Florida (3-0)
- Texas (2-1)
- Oklahoma (2-1)
- Georgia (2-1)
- Arkansas (2-1)
- Vanderbilt (2-1)
- Texas A&M (1-2)
- Mississippi State (1-2)
- Ole Miss (1-2)
- Tennessee (1-2)
- LSU (1-2)
- Missouri (0-3)
- Alabama (0-3)
- South Carolina (0-3)
