How Dylan Volantis' Impressive Performance Secured His Friday Start Going Forward

While losses or rain delays in this matter can be a detriment to a team’s success, the rainout last Sunday may have been the key to the Longhorns strong finish to the season.

No. 4 Texas rolled out a shuffled starting pitching rotation ahead of the series against No. 11 Alabama, placing usually Sunday starter Dylan Volantis in the Friday spot instead of Ruger Riojas.

With the new look, the pitching staff on Friday may have been the difference between another series-opening loss. Under Volantis' career night, and an impressive showing at the plate, the Longhorns were able to dominate the Crimson Tide, 10-2, Friday night at UFCU Dish-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.

The victory against Alabama is just Texas’ second conference series opening win of the season, with the Longhorns dropping the first game against Ole Miss, Auburn, South Carolina and Texas A&M.

“You don't want to make it too big. So I wasn't thinking like, ‘oh, it's Friday’ or anything, but I was at the end of the day, it was super sick,” Volantis said. “I’ll remember that for the rest of my life, being able to start on Friday for the first time.”

Another Signature Performance on the Mound

Texas Baseball — The Longhorns celebrate following a victory at the Bruce Bolt College Classic | Texas Athletics

Volantis' last start came in the rubber game against South Carolina 13 days ago, when he pitched for 5.2 innings in the Longhorns' victory against the Gamecocks, securing another series victory.

The sophomore pitcher was supposed to start in the series finale against Texas A&M this past weekend but Mother Nature had other plan, raining out the game with it finnlay being cancelled after an almost eight and a half hour rain delay.

Leading up to another top-15 series for the Longhorns, head coach Jim Schlossnagle did not want one of his best arms to have 15 days of rest between starts.

With the performance that Volantis had on Friday against the Crimson Tide, setting a career high 12 strikeouts and allowing just two runs, he has secured his spot as the series-opening starter for the rest of the season in Schlossnagle’s eyes.

“We'll keep him there, for no other reason than just to keep them in the proper six, seven days rest,” Schlossnagle said. “We'll just wait and see how the rest of the guys pitch. I mean, I feel pretty good about Ruger being a Friday night starter the same way I do about Dylan and in Luke [Harrison].”

While Schlossnagle is comfortable with his starting pitching being interchangeable, with Riojas and Harrison being guys in that Friday spot, Volantis' performance on the mound was impressive.

The Crimson Tide offense was completely shuddered against Volantis on the mound, struggling to piece together an at-bat all night.

Despite the long rest between starts, Volantis looked more dominant on the mound than in the typical seven-day rest he has usually taken since becoming a starter this season.

“The only reason why I did start today is because I didn't last Sunday,” Volantis said. The others were super excited, super pumped. Great guys. I'm super excited for Ruger tomorrow. He's gonna go do his thing that he normally does.”

Volantis only started to struggle once he got closer to his pitch count top in the sixth inning — even then, the run the Crimson Tide only scored in the inning came from an error by first baseman Casey Borba.

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