Jim Schlossnagle’s Decisions That Propelled Texas To The Super Regional

For three years, the Texas baseball program waited to see the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament. Finally, the Longhorns prevailed, taking down the UC-Santa Barbara Gauchos, 6-4, Sunday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

For a team that played 18 innings in nine hours, the Gauchos gave the Longhorns their biggest scare of the Austin Regional, pinning them down for five scoreless innings.

The Texas bats were able to garner timely hits, driving in runs, but UC Santa Barbara was never out of the game until the final out. The Longhorns unloaded their premier bullpen to secure the regional, but it took Luke Harrison, who started on Friday, to certify it.

“I'm really glad to see Luke get a chance to get the last out,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “The goal here is not to win a regional — it's to keep going.”

The Game Within The Game

Texas Longhorns pitcher Luke Harrison stares into the box before throwing a pitch. | University of Texas Athletics

Ruger Riojas earned his “real” first start since the Longhorns final road series against Tennessee. Riojas returned after dealing with arm soreness and settled in nicely after he gave up a home run to UC Santa Barbara outfielder Rowan Kelly in the first inning.

Texas rode Riojas in the early pitching duel that defined the first five innings of the regional final. Riojas tossed for six strikeouts and allowed three hits before he was taken out of the game to open up the sixth inning.

But Riojas may have the worst luck on the Texas roster, and not because of his own performance on the field. Since the start of conference play, Riojas has a 4-6 record when he starts on the mound, as his bullpen has not been able to sustain the tempo.

In the regional final, it happened again.

Haiden Leffew and Brett Crossland made their first relief appearance since the Missouri series, over two weeks ago, and their rustiness on the mound showed. Between the duo’s 13 pitches, the Gauchos drew two walks and one single that drove in two runs to regain the lead in the sixth inning.

“Have such great respect for [Liam] Barrett, and especially [Rowan] Kelly. Wow, what a player, what a hitter,” Schlossnagle said. “We had talked about before the game, Max [Weiner] and I, that if we needed specifically to get those two guys out, that we wanted to have Leffew ready to go, and he just didn't throw strikes.”

Instead of waiting it out, Schlossnagle called to the bullpen once again, bringing in Ethan Walker for a better pitching matchup with UC Santa Barbara catcher Nate Vargas for the lefty-on-lefty look. Walker got the first out of the inning, forcing Vargas to ground out to third baseman Casey Borba.

With two righties up on deck for the Gauchos, right-handed pitcher Thomas Burns came in for the favorable matchup and got the final two outs, allowing Texas to escape. Burns was efficient in the seventh, with a swift 1-2-3 inning.

“Walker got the out that we needed to get, and then Burns was outstanding,” Schlossnagle said.

Sam Cozart, the Longhorns' dominant closer throughout the regular season, was battered throughout his two innings in the regional final. Allowing three and two consecutive hits in the eighth and ninth innings. Kelly came up big on his first evaluation of Cozart, firing a double advancing a runner on third.

Schlossnagle took out Cozart when Kelly came back up to the plate with loaded bases — not wanting Kelly to get the best of his freshman pitcher for a second time, Harrison was called upon to come up big a second time in the regional.

“I always loved just kind of the chaos of the bullpen a little bit, just getting to know that you go on the ball game at any moment,” Harrison said. “ I knew that everyone believed in me, and I believed in myself.”

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