A year after a stunning home exit, Texas is back where it did not want to be and where it most wants to finish the job. The No. 6 Longhorns are hosting the Austin Regional again, opening Friday against Holy Cross with another chance to turn a second straight 40-win season into something deeper.
That is why the search for Texas baseball is peaking now. The regional opener has arrived, and Texas is trying to answer the same question that lingered after last year’s NCAA Tournament collapse at home: can it hold up this time in Austin?
The memory is still sharp. Texas entered last year as the No. 2 overall seed, then let a 6-1 lead slip away on Saturday before falling behind 7-0 on Sunday and getting eliminated by UTSA. This year’s field is different — UC Santa Barbara, Tarleton State and Holy Cross are the other teams in Austin — but the task is the same: survive the weekend in front of its own crowd and avoid another immediate exit.
Jim Schlossnagle said Monday he had not tried to drill last year’s disappointment into the team. He pointed instead to the roster turnover that comes with college baseball now, noting that Texas has plenty of players back from that team but still has more newcomers than returnees. That makes the veteran group, he said, the most important voice in carrying forward what went wrong a year ago.
The Longhorns also enter the regional with some unfinished business on the mound and in the lineup. Texas still has not found a clear fourth starter, and senior right-hander Ruger Riojas has been dealing with tendinitis in his throwing shoulder. Texas ranks 18th nationally in fielding percentage, but it has also had to manage health issues that have touched several regulars.
Junior Ethan Mendoza is part of that uncertainty. He has not played second base since injuring his shoulder against Tennessee three weeks ago, and since then he is 2-for-16 as the designated hitter, a.125 stretch that shows how hard it has been for him to settle back in. Junior right fielder Aiden Robbins was sick during the Missouri series and missed the regular-season finale, while sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez continues to play through pain in his surgically repaired left hand.
Texas scheduled redshirt senior left-hander Luke Harrison to start the opener against Holy Cross, giving the Longhorns a veteran hand for the first step. Harrison is 6-3 with a 4.63 ERA and is the only Texas player on the roster with College World Series experience, having thrown two innings against Texas A&M in Omaha in 2022. Schlossnagle said he was in a really good place and expected him to be at full strength after side sessions over the last two weeks, including one a couple of days ago that he described as outstanding.
From there, Texas is not pretending it can script the weekend. Schlossnagle said every pitcher will have to be available and that the best arms will likely be the ones used the most. That is the reality of postseason baseball, and it leaves the Longhorns with the same assignment that defeated them a year ago: play better at home when the margin is gone and the pressure is highest.
If Texas gets past Holy Cross, the path through the Austin Regional still runs straight through the same question that hung over the program all spring. This time, the Longhorns are not just hosting the regional again. They are trying to make sure Austin does not become the place another season ends too soon.
