Can Ruger Riojas have a resurgence?

The Texas Baseball team is not 22-8 and regular season champions in its first year of Southeastern Conference play without the contributions of Ruger Riojas. He began the season as a reliever, but was needed to fill a role in the starting rotation and blossomed into a vital contributor for the Longhorns. He shined in the toughest of battles this year, but has not looked anything like his early 2025 self of late. Can he recapture some of his mid-season magic?

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Riojas had his name first called upon as a starter in a pivotal rubber match versus then-No. 2 LSU. He pitched 5.2 innings and allowed only two earned runs to lead Texas to an eventual 6-2 victory. Riojas has also shown an ability to go for extended outings. He threw 114 pitches in a win over Kentucky. He also stepped up in one of the most important home series of the season, allowing no runs against Texas A&M in a 2-1 game one victory when Jim Schlossnagle moved him to the No. 1 spot to replace the injured Jared Spencer.

But Riojas has allowed 18 earned runs over his last three starts, and Schlossnagle would be smart in helping him out of a rut that Texas had trouble escaping at the end of 2022.

The 2022 Longhorns had a pretty darn good staff of Pete Hansen, Tristan Stevens, and Lucas Gordon. The group largely cruised through the regular season, showing the dominance that can often be expected from a Texas pitching staff. But that ride in 2022 ended in Omaha. Hansen gave up six earned runs in 4.1 innings in a game one loss to Notre Dame, and Schlossnagle’s Texas A&M Aggies eliminated the Horns after tagging Gordon for four earned runs in 1.2 innings. Even before Omaha, Hansen and Gordon gave up a number of earned runs to an ECU team whose game three slump could be attributed to the Longhorns’ Saturday surge.

All that said, Hansen, Stevens, and Gordon had racked up a lot of innings by the time Texas reached the Super Regionals. Hansen logged over 100 innings in 17 starts, while Gordon and Stevens each pitched 85.2 innings in a 69 game season.

That is the concern coming from the recent performances from Riojas, who was mainly asked to be a reliever in his previous two seasons at UTSA. Has the newfound workload nearly emptied his tank?

As it relates to his ability to control the baseball, there isn’t anything that stands out in his numbers. The difference between percentage points is sometimes a handful of pitches. Plus, he was giving up free bases against good teams like Georgia and Texas A&M.

It seems to be a case of everything going sideways at the worst time, and the law of averages hasn’t been on Ruger’s side lately.

Arkansas was just a case of some early hits, with one leaving the park, and then the Hogs capitalizing on mistakes made in the 3rd. Riojas started the inning by plunking a batter, walking another, and next thing you know Texas is losing 5-0. Compound that with a similar start in the 4th and it makes for a bad day on the bump.

Florida is where the idea that Riojas plateaued started to look like a real possibility. He could not find the zone to save his life versus the Gators. Add in some groundball singles finding the holes in the infield, and Riojas found himself alone in the center of the Disch pretty quickly.

Oklahoma points to a potential return to form for Riojas, yet that’s the game he may be the most upset about. Solo shots won’t kill you, the one in the first probably didn’t even garner Riojas’ attention. But what did was the litany of bunts in the 3rd and 4th innings. Of the eleven times the OU bat touched the ball in those two innings, five of them were from bunting the ball and only two of them resulted in an out.

What’s most likely is baseball showing it’s ability to be cruel in bunches. Just like when Kimble Schuessler would hit a ball around 200 mph and an amazing play would retire him as happened so often this season.

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Texas fans should have no concerns seeing No. 13 trot out on the mound in the Austin regional, even if the past few weeks have been a bumpy ride. Oklahoma points toward a return to form being imminent, and it would arrive at the best possible time.