Sam Cozart Impresses in His Texas Debut Against Lamar

Back in the fall, the Lamar Cardinals rolled into Austin and cruised past the hometown Texas Longhorns, 11-5 in the 12-inning exhibition match.

While it didn’t count in the grand scheme of things, being more of a warm-up against different competition rather than fellow teammates. The No. 3 Longhorns were able to get the last laugh over the Cardinals, run-ruling them 14-4, Tuesday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.

Despite another dominant offensive performance, with a season high 13 hits, and 14 runs tattooed on the board. The Longhorns may have found their dominant freshman relief pitcher in Sam Cozart.

“What Cozart did is he's done every day since he's been on campus,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “[He] just throws strikes and throws multiple pitches for strikes, be in control of himself and mature beyond his years.”

Another Great Arm To The Rotation

freshMAN 👨#HookEm pic.twitter.com/yi86HsP8qn
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 18, 2026

In his season debut for the Longhorns, Cozart faced 14 batters, striking out four of them and walking none in four innings of work. The freshman allowed three hits and just one run in the fifth inning to close out his first appearance of the season.

Cozart provided much-needed stability on the mound after starting pitcher, sophomore Jason Flores, started to struggle against the middle of Lamar's batting order in the second inning.

Flores allowed a trio of hits and three earned runs before he was pulled for junior pitcher Ethan Walker to close out the second inning.

“I'll take that outing every time of Jason throwing strikes,” Schlossnagle said. “And then [Ethan] Walker is so reliable in terms of being a strike thrower and changing the look.”

Although Schlossnagle was not too disappointed by Flores performance in his first start of the season, with Tuesday games providing an opportunity for multiple arms to get work and experience on the mound.

While the Texas bats opened the night slowly, Cozart provided enough cushion when he came in the top of the fourth inning, buying enough time for his hitters to heat up while rolling through the Cardinals' order.

“I'm always consistently throwing strikes. I'll fill up the zone, as [pitching coach] Max [Weiner] loves me to do,” Cozart said. “I'm always doing well, I'm always going to fill up the zone. There is never a day off.”

Cozart has the potential to fill a similar role as a strike-throwing machine as Dylan Volantis did in his freshman season last year. While the two have similar stature, both standing at 6-foot-6, Cozart has about 40 more pounds than Volantis.

Not Enough Innings For Everyone

The Longhorns were able to find its offense late, with a very productive fifth and seventh innings to put the game out early. But with the game ending in a run-rule, it also did not give Schlossnagle the opportunity to showcase some of his newest arms.

“I'm glad glad Maddox got that hit,” Schlossnagle said. “But we had, [Hayden] Leffew ready to go and [Brett] Crossland that we wanted to get in the game. So we'll have to sit tight on those guys.”

No. 3 Texas will face the Michigan State Spartans, who are coming off a series victory over a top-10 team this weekend at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.