No. 2 Texas Drops Series Opener in Jim Schlossnagle's Return to Texas A&M

There is the Devil, and then there is Jim Schlossnagle — in some circles around Aggieland, the latter is worse.

For almost two years, the 12th Man of Texas A&M has been salivating for the day to welcome their former head coach, who so famously left just one day after losing the College World Series to their biggest rival — the Texas Longhorns.

Every time Schlossnagle emerged, the fans, led by the antics of Section 203 — the Aggies released all of their passion and pent-up anger, raining constant boos until he reached the safe confines of the dugout.

Texas A&M’s home field advantage seemingly was the deciding factor, with the Aggies successfully rattling the Longhorns' bullpen down the stretch. The Aggies handed the Longhorns their fourth conference series opening loss of the season, 9-8 on Friday night at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park.

“The fans here are great, they cheer for their team,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “They have an opinion on Texas and me, and that’s okay, it's going to be that way for as long as I’m head coach. That doesn’t affect me, I don’t think about it.”

The Texas Bullpen Stuggles Return

It was a brutal night for the Texas bullpen, returning to the familiar woes it experienced at the start of conference play. The relievers struggled to find the strike zone once starter Ruger Riojas was pulled in the bottom of the sixth inning.

The Longhorns called for the services of Haiden Leffew after Riojas gave up a lead-off walk. Riojas ended his night with four strikeouts, five hits, and five earned runs against one of the best-hitting teams in the nation, maintaining the Longhorns' 6-4 lead.

But as they were all night, the 12th Man showed up and never wavered for a moment, and the environment got to Leffew, who struggled to find the strike zone. Leffew walked three consecutive batters and tossed a pitch in the dirt for a passed ball, allowing the Aggies to tattoo a run on the board.

“We gave them a lot of opportunities to get free bases,” catcher Carson Tinney said. “They took advantage of it."

Freshman Brett Crossland did not provide much relief with bases still loaded up for him after he replaced Leffew. The young pitcher walked his first batter for another run for the Aggies, tying the game up at six, with just one out on the board.

Texas A&M first basemen Gravin Grahovac grounded out to send the third and final run of the inning, giving Texas A&M the lead, 7-6, without even getting a swing off for a base hit.

It didn’t get any easier for Crossland, with the Aggies, spurred by Section 203 once again, rhythmically chanting “Brett is nervous,” over and over and over again in the seventh inning. Giving up a walk and a base hit earlier in the inning, Crossland was yanked from the game after he nailed Aggies' left fielder Terrence Kiel II in the head.

“No hits and three runs, you’re not going to win games that way,” Schlossnagle said.

Four of the nine runs scored by the Aggies tonight came from walks by the Longhorns in an all too familiar bullpen collapse that has defined these series openers so far this season.

Despite being down two runs heading into the final inning, the Longhorns were able to rally with back-to-back home runs by Aiden Robbins and Anthony Pack Jr. to make it a one-run game. The Longhorns middle of the order of Temo Beccera and Casey Borba couldn’t complete the rally, with both grounding out to close out the night.

Despite a decent hitting performance from the Longhorns, launching four home runs in total, including a pair of 2-run blasts from Tinney and Robbins earlier in the game, the sixth inning bullpen collapse was too much to overcome.

They’re great competitors,” Tinney said. “Sometimes the game doesn’t always go your way, and I think that’s what happened today.”

Texas will look to split the series against Texas A&M tomorrow at 2 p.m. CT at Olsen Field at Blue Bell Park in College Station.

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