Five Takeaways from Texas' Shriners Children's College Showdown championship

Texas baseball almost had a perfect weekend in Arlington.

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If not for an extra-innings loss against Lousiville to kick off the weekend, Texas would’ve made a statement in all three of its games. Still, Jim Schlossnagle kicked off his head coaching career at Texas with a 2-1 record, winning the Shriner’s Children’s College Showdown and outscoring Ole Miss and Oklahoma State 24-8 in the two wins.

Texas baseball looks to be in a great spot entering its first season in the SEC, the premier conference in college baseball.

Here are five things IT learned and took away from the first weekend of the baseball season.

1. The Max Weiner Effect

Texas baseball fans heard the name Max Weiner a lot this offseason. Adding Schlossnagle was important, but many were told acquiring Weiner as pitching coach alongside him was just as big of a get. Weiner had the resume beforehand, coaching in the MLB and helping create an elite staff in College Station, but there was still a ton of questions about how the pitching rotation would operate in Austin.

A lot of that was answered this weekend. Jared Spencer and Luke Harrison, two pitchers who had spent most of their careers as relievers, looked lights out against Louisville and Ole Miss. The two combined for 12 strikeouts in as many innings, only allowing one XBH in a scoreless pair of outings from the Friday and Saturday starters.

Texas looked like it would have some problems with starting pitching in 2025, and while Sunday starter Kade Bing was pulled in the first inning of his outing, Weiner looks to have already made a giant impact on the effectiveness of the staff in the form of its 1-2 punch

2. Three Classes of Stardom

Texas had three hitters who absolutely tore the cover off the ball this weekend. To no one’s surprise, junior right fielder Max Belyeu was one of them. Even while battling sickness, Belyeu had an absurd weekend, earning the unofficial title of showdown MVP with eight hits, five RBI and a 1.743 OPS. Belyeu will be competing for the SEC Player of the Year throughout this season.

But the next two batters may be a little more surprising. While Kimble Schuessler and Jalin Flores were fine, the next star was a youngster, sophomore Will Gasparino. The 2026 MLB Draft prospect was an expected breakout candidate for 2025, but maybe not to this level. The giant center fielder had five hits and each one was for extra bases. That includes two home runs. This resulted in a 1.471 OPS and a team leading eight RBI, and it felt like pretty much every out he hit in the final two games was 100+ MPH off the bat.

Lastly, freshman third baseman Adrian Rodriguez was as advertised. The phenom started slow in game one, but his home run in extra innings looked like it might’ve won the game for the Longhorns. After that, Rodriguez recorded a hit on five of his final eight at-bats, including three extra base hits and a bomb in the third game.

bash bros 💣#HookEm | @arod_2024 | @BelyeuMax | @WillGasparino pic.twitter.com/ZMdrNDV8VQ

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 17, 2025

Texas not only has an SEC POTY star currently on the roster, but two players with another year or two of eligibility ready to join him in stardom.

3. Infield Defensive Woes

Flores’ defense was something that IT identified as a key point of interest for the 2025 season. The only thing keeping him from being an All-American seemed to be his lack of range and clumsiness at the shortstop position.

Unfortunately for Texas baseball, Flores continued his defensive struggles. Though his errors didn’t result in runs, Flores recorded both a fielding and throwing error against Louisville, with his sixth inning hiccup almost costing the Longhorns.

To add on, both Rodriguez and transfer second baseman Ethan Mendoza struggled with an error apiece. Surprisingly, the best looking defender in the infield was Schuessler who was playing first base full time for the first time in his college career. He made a few nice catches and seemed comfortable in the position.

Time will tell how good the infield’s defense will be, but Flores and Rodriguez specifically need to sure up their gloves as SEC play approaches.

4. Bullpen Struggles Continue

While Weiner can claim credit for his awesome work with Spencer and Harrison, it’s also important to note there were struggles in key moments this weekend as well.

In 19 innings, the bullpen gave up 10 earned runs, good for a 4.74 ERA. Not terrible, especially given the Longhorns needing to use eight pitchers out of the ‘pen on Sunday, but there were some concerns on Friday and Saturday.

On Friday, Ruger Riojas looked great for two-plus innings in long relief. Riojas was seen as the best non-closer reliever on the roster heading into the season, and he looked fantastic for most of the game. But once he got into that third full inning of work in the bottom of the ninth, he began to collapse and allowed runners to reach second and third with only one out. The bullpen really crumbled under Will Mercer, who stepped in and allowed four base runners with only three outs, allowing two earned runs and letting the runners inherited from Rojas score to tie the game.

Saturday’s game only allowed for 0.2 innings of relief, but Sunday saw a lot of work from players out of the pen. Guys like Drew Rerick and Max Grubbs were great in their limited time, but Dylan Volantis and Cody Howard struggled to keep runners off the bases. The pen gave up six runs in 8.1 innings, nothing disastrous but a rough look when Sundays seem to be ready for ‘bullpen games’ throughout the year.

This isn’t a HUGE concern right now, but outside of Riojas, there isn’t a lot of stability. Who is going to be the closer? What role do freshmen like Volantis and Rerick hold? A lot of these ideas still need to be answered.

5. Trust in Tommy

Entering the 2025 season, IT predicted that Casey Borba would be the main ninth starter/DH in Austin throughout the season. He was the 11th man last year and had fairly good numbers as a rotational corner infielder and DH. But Borba only commanded one plate appearance over the weekend, pinch-hitting against the Cowboys.

Instead, Schloss called on another expected breakout player to not only start, but be put into a key spot. Tommy Farmer IV was an expected starter on Friday given Belyeu’s health. Farmer not only started in right field, he hit fifth in the order. Guys like Borba and Farmer were presumed to be hitting in the 7 or 8 slots behind hitters like Gasparino, Rylan Galvan and Easton Winfield. Farmer continued to start in the five-hole against Ole Miss, this time playing left field while Winfield DH’ed.

Most surprisingly, however, Winfield was the one dropped from the Sunday lineup in favor of Cole Chamberlain, with Winfield returning to LF and hitting third, a spot usually reserved for the star batters.

IT doesn’t expect Farmer to be the three-hole hitter, and Schloss most likely will bring him into a bit more of a rotation, but Farmer looked comfortable as a three-game starter and a key hitter. Though some doubted the spot in the order, he was sixth among the team’s 12 batters in OPS, only behind the three stars and veterans Flores and Galvan. If anyone needs to earn their spot in the lineup as the season progresses, it’s the transfer Winfield, who got on base just once in his seven at-bats.