How Texas Baseball Is Building Its Bullpen For The Postseason

For the past two Friday nights, sophomore Dylan Volantis has delivered some outstanding starts — and the bats have followed.

Against Alabama two weekends ago, Volantis struck out a career-high 12 batters while Texas piled up 16 hits in a 10-2 win. The following week against Vanderbilt, he struck out 11 more as the offense exploded for 11 runs.

In both games, Sam Cozart — Texas’ most reliable bullpen arm — handled the final innings. It was a peculiar decision. In games that were largely in hand, it would’ve been fair to save him for tighter situations later in the weekend.

Jim Schlossnagle later explained the thinking: he wanted to see if Cozart could handle extended outings.

Fair enough. And it worked. Cozart even closed out Sunday’s extra-inning win over Vanderbilt, striking out Korbin Reynolds to secure the series.

So Friday night, with Texas leading by just two runs in the eighth inning against Mississippi State, why not go right back to Cozart?

Schlossnagle didn’t. But luckily for the Longhorns, it worked out anyway.

Leffew, Burns secure win over Bulldogs

Texas freshman pitcher Sam Cozart eyes the plate in a midweek game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas. | Texas Athletics

Unlike the previous two Fridays, this wasn’t an offensive explosion. Texas managed just three runs on five hits against the Bulldogs, leaving little margin for error late.

Volantis, however, was once again dominant.

The left-hander struck out 12 Bulldogs and kept hitters off balance all night. He allowed just three hits — two of them infield singles — and walked two.

But with the offense unable to fully separate, the bullpen had to finish the job.

Haiden Leffew entered first and delivered a clean seventh inning before running into trouble in the eighth. A leadoff home run and a walk quickly followed, but he remained in the game. He struck out the third batter before allowing a single, putting the tying run on base with one out.

Then came in Thomas Burns.

Burns has pitched better as of late, but high-leverage spots haven’t always been his strength. Earlier this season against Ole Miss, he allowed a grand slam that secured the Longhorns’ first loss of the season. Even his recent outings — including 3 1/3 solid innings at Vanderbilt — didn’t carry as much pressure, relatively. With two runners on and one out, Vanderbilt had the chance to tie it up.

But Burns delivered, striking out Vytas Valincius, then inducing a groundout from Bryce Chance to escape the inning and preserve the lead. From there, Cozart handled the ninth, capping a 19-strikeout night for Texas pitching and a game 1 victory against the Bulldogs.

From what looked like a questionable decision from Schlossnagle to extend Leffew, then turning to Burns with Cozart available, looked like a calculated move.

“I like Cozart. Cozart can come in the middle of an inning, for sure, but I love him starting an inning,” Schlossnagle said of the decision. “Burns has a really good history of coming in in the middle of innings. He's more he's comfortable with that.”

Cozart has been asked to do more than just close. And while he’s delivered, it’s also a reminder of a larger issue: Texas can’t rely on one arm if it wants to make a real postseason run.

Texas is in a comfortable position. The résumé is strong, and a top-eight national seed feels well within reach. That gives Schlossnagle the freedom to experiment now instead of scrambling later.

“You're never really satisfied, because you're never gonna be perfect,” Schlossnagle said. “But I'm really satisfied with where Leffew, Burns, Cozart and Crossland are, so we can use them so that maybe we don't wear them all down."

It worked, and now Texas has some extra arms they can trust and a fresh Cozart for the rest of the weekend.

Texas will look to take the series Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

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