Longhorns Confident With ABS Heading Into SEC Tournament

The MLB’s ABS gets its first look in college baseball at the SEC Tournament in Hoover

Texas left handed pitcher Kade Bing tosses a pitch on the mound | Texas Athletics

It won’t be until Friday afternoon that the Texas Longhorns will run out on the field to take on either the Arkansas Razorbacks or a rematch with the Tennessee Volunteers for their second Southeastern Conference Tournament appearance. 

New for the SEC Tournament and college baseball is the Automatic Strike-Ball system, taken from the professional game. 

Like other SEC teams that have gotten a chance to use the system in the first two rounds of the tournament, the Longhorns will not allow pitchers to challenge calls, but will give catcher Carson Tinney on defense to challenge and some of its hitters. 

“No pitchers are allowed to [challenge] — they’re too emotional and too far away,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Tinny will do a great job. We've been working on it for a couple weeks, and then the hit, the hitters, we're going to give them a little bit of a framework, kind of some generic rules to use when they can do it, when they can't.”

What Have the Longhorns Done To Practice With ABS 

Texas sophomore pitcher Dylan Volantis throws a pitch against the Mississippi State Bulldogs on May 1, 2026, at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas. Volantis tied his career high of 12 strikeouts in his third Friday start of the season. | Noah McCord, The Reflector

Unlike Missouri head coach Kerrick Jackson, who worked with his players on mock ABS situations in the final regular season series against Texas, by reviewing the strike zone after tapping their thigh. The Longhorns have taken a different approach with the new system. 

Texas plays a weekly simulation game, usually giving players, like a reshirt freshman, valuable playing time or allowing them to work with an injured player in a low-stakes environment. In the lead-up to the conference tournament, the Longhorns were working with Tinney to get a feel for the strike zone. 

“We have sim games every week, so during those I'll catch a little bit, just to like all sit back there and call balls and strikes,” Tinney said. “That's my practice for knowing the zone. So far it's been good.” 

So far, the majority of challenges in the tournament have come from catchers with a 68.6% success rate according to Baseball America’s ABS Tracker. 

Expect the Longhorns to follow the same philosophy, with Tinney making the majority of the challenge calls this weekend. 

“[Schlossngale] basically told me I have free rein to do what I want back there,” Tinney said. “I'm excited.” 

Batters haven’t had as much success as the backstops across the conference. As of Wednesday afternoon, batters are 3-for-9 on challenges. Florida, Ole Miss and Kentucky are the only teams to not see a batter's challenge in the conference tournament. 

The Texas batters, though, are excited for the opportunity to challenge calls, with SEC Freshman Player of the Year, Anthony Pack Jr., who batted an impressive .360 in conference play, is confident in reading the strike zone. 

“I'm confident with the zone. … there's a time to do it,” Anthony Pack Jr. said. “It's going to be cool seeing other teams do it against us to see if they're right or wrong.”

Before the start of the conference tournament, each player was measured for an individual-specific strike zone depending on height. 

Each team is allowed three challenges per game and will be able to keep the challenge if successful and will lose if the call is unsuccessful. 

“I think it's great — it's kind of a tease, because I don't know how we put it all through college baseball. It's expensive, it's a big process,” Schlossnagle said. “It's been fun to watch. It seems like the umpires are handling it well.” 

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