Luke Harrison Clinches Austin Regional For No. 6 Texas Longhorns

When the game was in doubt, No. 53 settled any questions about the grit of the Texas Longhorns.

With the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning, just one swing could’ve ended everything for Texas, forcing a winner-take-all game on Monday. After tossing four innings on Friday, lifetime Longhorn Luke Harrison was tasked with the biggest spot of his college career.

Standing before him was UC-Santa Barbara centerfielder Rowan Kelly, the Gauchos' most dangerous hitter, who knocked in three home runs across the weekend.

Harrison forced the decisive pop-up for the third and final out of the Austin Regional, clinching Texas’ first Super Regional appearance since 2023. The Longhorns squeezed out a narrow, 6-4 victory Sunday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

“The feeling of finishing a ball game as a pitcher, going, giving Tinny a big hug, is just something that I've been waiting for for a while,” said Luke Harrison after picking up his first save since his freshman season. “This one felt great.”

Texas Overcomes UC-Santa Barbara

Texas' Aiden Robbins (43) celebrates after hitting a solo home run against Tennessee in an NCAA college baseball game in Knoxville, Tennessee on May 8, 2026. | Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

For the past two days, the Longhorns looked like conquerors of the baseball diamond, thrashing Holy Cross and Tarleton State on their way to the regional final.

Texas scored a program postseason record 35 runs across its first two games. However, a UC-Santa Barbara team that just had an hour of rest between its first and second game of the day brought the once seemingly invincible Longhorns back to earth.

“We told the team before the game that this is going to be really hard. Today was going to be really hard,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “You need to anticipate that it's going to be really hard.”

Gauchos starting pitcher Kellan Montgomery tossed for five clean innings before the Longhorns' bats were able to draw it its first run and its lead on an Adrian Rodriguez sac fly, and a later RBI single from Ethan Mendoza in the sixth inning.

UC-Santa Barbara was far from out of it, and the all-too-common struggles that marred Texas throughout its Southeastern Conference slate returned — the bullpen collapse.

In their first appearances in over two weeks, relief pitchers Haiden Leffew and Brett Crossland were pulled early in their appearances, struggling to maintain their command.

Leffew drew a pair of walks, getting yanked after 10 pitches. Crossland allowed a single, committing a deceiving throwing error to first base. Right fielder Aiden Robbins added more salt to the wound for the second error of the ugly defense sequence for Texas, allowing UC-Santa Barbara to regain the lead, 3-2.

Robbins was able to redeem himself, though, rocketing his fourth home run of the regional, a 2-run shot in the seventh inning to put the Longhorns back on top. Texas grew its lead in the eighth with an RBI double from Mendoza and a failed pickoff attempt from UC-Santa Barbara reliever AJ Krodel.

“I hadn't seen the fastball the whole at-bat, so I was really just waiting for it,” Robbins said. “He kind of ran it into my barrel and put a perfect swing on it — the energy kind of just floated through me.”

Texas’ premier closer, Sam Cozart, like his bullpen cohort, looked pedestrian on the mound following their two-week gap between appearances. The freshman pitcher allowed three consecutive hits and a single run but got out of the eighth inning without further damage.

Cozart would not finish the night, drawing another duo of hits to open up the ninth and loading up the bases with a hit-by-pitch with two outs on the board. Kelly fouled off his first look against Harrison before firing the decisive blow, a pop-up to left field for Rodriguez to grab and seal the Austin Regional.

“I watched [Kelly] play all weekend, he's taking so many good swings against every kind of pitcher,” Schlossnagle said. “I just had such a belief in Luke, and just wanted to change the look. I didn't want him to see Cozart twice.”

As the No. 6 national seed, Texas will host the winner of the Eugene Regional next weekend at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.

Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Facebook, X and Instagram for the latest news.

Add us as a preferred source on Google