Why Texas Freshman Maddox Monsour Is The Answer For Longhorns

It is well known that the Texas Longhorns' outfield may not be this team's strongest area by far, which has seen many iterations this season.

The only consistent pieces this year have been junior Aiden Robbins and standout freshman Anthony Pack Jr., who has played both left and right field, while Robbins has started the entire season in his native center field.

Before the start of their top-10 showdown with the Mississippi State Bulldogs, though, head coach Jim Schlossnagle made yet another change to his outfield’s look, moving Robbins to right field and placing freshman Maddox Monsour in center for the series.

“Sometimes the game tells you things, and sometimes the coach needs to listen or pay attention, maybe a little bit more, maybe just try some things [out],” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.

Texas Maddox Monsour Impressing Jim Schlossnagle

Texas Baseball — The Longhorns celebrate following a victory at the Bruce Bolt College Classic | Texas Athletics

In Schlossnagle’s perfect world, his outfield would consist of Pack Jr., Robbins and sophomore two-sport athlete Jonah Williams. But with Williams falling to season-ending surgery, cutting his sophomore campaign short, the Longhorns have had to improvise.

While Robbins and Pack Jr. have been mainstays in the outfield the entire season, the third spot deep has been a revolving door with Jayden Duplainter, Dariyan Pendergrass, Ashton Larson and Monsour all seeing various action in the outfield this season.

For Schlossnalge, the move to Robbins to right and Monsour into centerfield was for defensive reasons, with Monsour's speed just a little better to cover the larger canvas, in his eyes.

“Thought Maddox did a nice job, got a hit, stolen base, got a big run, had a good his last at bat was that was tough out,” Schlossnagle said. “We just got to try something to play better defense out there.”

Offensively, Monsour was able to come up big in the series opener against Mississippi State, firing a hit that set up the Longhorns final scoring inning in the fifth, along with a couple of solid at-bats drawing high pitch counts for the Bulldogs arms.

For the foreseeable future, Monsour will stay out in centerfield, but Schlossnagle remarked that he does not think it will be the end of Robbins' time playing centerfield this season.

“Given our situation, without Jonah, we'll stick with it,” Schlossnagle said. “I don't think that'll be the end of Robbins playing center field, but, you know, I think that for right now, yeah, we're gonna stick with something like that.”

Change is never a bad thing, and making a few adjustments in the middle of the season hasn’t hurt the Longhorns. The starting pitching rotation is a prime example of that this year.

Texas has to play the long game, despite being in the win-now mode this season. With Monsour seeing an uptick in playing time in his freshman campaign, he’ll be a more polished player next season.

The adjustment should not be a huge concern as the season inches closer to the NCAA tournament — Pack Jr. isn’t too concerned and is comfortable with the new look in the outfield with Monsour.

“We take fly balls all the time, so there's nothing new, Pack Jr. said. “I know he's gonna cover a lot of ground out there, very fast, very athletic. … We trust each other out there, and communication is the same.”

The Longhorns will look to clinch a series victory over the Bulldogs this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. CT at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin.

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