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Superb pitching and Mendoza mashing leads Texas Baseball to a series win over Texas A&M, 3-2.

by:EvanVieth•about 15 hours
Ethan Mendoza
Ethan Mendoza (Sara Diggins/American-Statesman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)

“Ball 4” “Ball 4” “Ball 4”

Was all that could be heard in a Maroon-specked UFCU Disch Falk Stadium in the top of the eighth inning.

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RHP Thomas Burns had just let it up a double and walked Texas A&M’s best hitter, Jace Laviollette, in four pitches. As is tradition for Aggie fans, each ball thrown in a row by Burns was matched with a jeer and forearms moving in rhythm, trying to antaginize the opposing pitcher.

With no outs and Texas clinging to a two-run lead, the Arizona State transfer faced one of the most pivotal moments of the entire season for the Texas Longhorns.

“Just slowing things down, taking a deep breath all together and moving on,” Burns said about the advise pitching coach Max Weiner provided on a mound visit. “The past is the past, you can’t control it, and just making the next pitch my 0-0.”

Burns forced a flyout, then blew two 98 MPH fastballs past each of the next two hitters, sitting down the heart of the Aggie order on strikeouts. Burns’ moment was one of many heart-pounding battles throughout Texas’ 3-2 win against Texas A&M, taking the series and the bragging rights over the Aggies.

Just one inning after Burns’ poise and flames erupted the Texas crowd, the Longhorns were entrenched in another large battle. LHP Dylan Volantis, who had already thrown 45 pitches the day before, was called on to face PH Hayden Schott with 2 RISP, clinging to a 3-1 lead. The savvy freshman gave Schott a pitch to hit, forcing 2B Jayden Duplantier to make a solid play at second.

3-2 game.

With two outs and a runner on third, in stepped Terrence Kiel II, a matchup of two of the best freshmen in the nation, begging a star-studded matchup that you’ll see a lot of for the next two years. Quickly, Volantis dug Kiel into a hole. 0-2 count, and the crowd was on its feet. Kiel then scorched a ball down the left field line: foul. A sigh of relief in the stands.

The next pitch was a good one, a looping slider that nabbed the edge of the strike zone.

Horns win.

Catcher Rylan Galvan shot up like a rocket in celebration, jumping and sprinting seemingly at the same time to embrace his teammate. Volantis had now given Texas another save and another win against the Aggies.

“I’m relieved to have won the game,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “We were trying to,avoid using both (Max) Grubbs and Volantis because Max didn’t throw much yesterday, and I wanted to kind of have him available for the middle endings tomorrow if we needed help. But when you have a chance to win one and win a series, go ahead and do it. So we pieced together the last inning, and Dylan made pitches when he had to.”

Offensively, Texas found its spark from a DH Ethan Mendoza, smashing his first homer since March 4th and adding a clutch double in the seventh to add insurance; it was much needed.

“They were SKOL-ing. They did their job,” Mendoza said about the crowd at the Disch after his big double. “It was pretty electric. That was definitely one of the coolest moments so far this year.”

LHP Luke Harrison added one of his best outings, going six innings and allowing one run with six strikeouts, while Kimble Schuessler got on base three times and Jalin Flores scored a run on a stolen base and an error. Flores wasn’t supposed to be stealing from second to third, Schlossnagle said, but the run was an impactful part of today’s win.

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Texas moves to 36-5 on the year thanks to the 3-2 win and is now 18-2 in SEC play, tied for the best start to a season in Texas history.

Founding SEC teams have had over 25 years to earn that record. It’s taken Texas just one.

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