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Texas Baseball Weekend Wrap: Longhorns crowned champions of Shriners Children's College Showdown

by:EvanVieth•02/17/25
Jim Schlossnagle
Jim Schlossnagle (Tim Heitman-Imagn Images)

Texas hadn’t won a regular season game at Globe Life Field since April 3, 2022. The Longhorns hadn’t won in the postseason at the home of the Texas Rangers since the 2022 Big 12 Tournament. Ten straight times, the Longhorns fell in Arlington, and the hope was this weekend’s Shriners Children’s College Showdown would be the chance to end that streak. A season-opening loss to Louisville to made it 11 straight, but finally on Saturday night Texas found a rhythm and, more importantly, wins in the MLB ballpark.

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Whether it be the expertise of head coach Jim Schlossnagle or a revamped and re-energized group of players, the Longhorns took the showdown by storm, winning two of three games and crowning themselves the champions of the tournament.

While the story of the weekend came from the success of the bats, the hitters were mostly quiet in the first game. In game one against Louisville on Friday night, sophomore center fielder Will Gasparino drove a second inning pitch to right center field, clearing the outfield wall and scoring Max Belyeu. In just six batters, it seemed like Texas’ sluggers were going to be on full display.

But the bats mostly went quiet from then on, recording just five hits in the next seven innings. During this time, however, Indiana State transfer and starter Jared Spencer was dealing. The lefty fireballer’s fastball was humming throughout the 5.2 innings he pitched, striking out six and allowing just five Cardinal baserunners.

UTSA transfer Ruger Riojas relieved him in the 6th, nearly closing the game out on his own.

But Louisville took advantage of Texas’ lack of late offensive spark, getting two runners on base before Will Mercer came in for the save. Cardinal DH Garret Pike‘s single tied the game up on the last out of the game, sending the game to extras.

Even with freshman Adrian Rodriguez‘s bomb in the top of the 10th, Texas fell to the Cardinals on a walk-off, two-out single to dish Texas the 4-3 loss, starting the Longhorn season at an 0-1 record.

But Texas still had a lot of baseball left to play, and those bats sure woke up. Saturday’s matchup against Ole Miss, which will not count toward the SEC standings, was a perfect game for the Longhorns in every aspect. Eight different Longhorns had a hit as the offense exploded to 10 runs in seven innings, seven of which came in the fourth, on the way to a 10-0 shutout win.

What was most impressive is that the fourth inning came without any help from the long ball. Ten Longhorns got on base during the inning, with Gasparino and catcher Rylan Galvan each knocking in two RBI. By the time ASU transfer Ethan Mendoza had an RBI single in the seventh inning, Texas had run-ruled a conference opponent.

The 10-0 win was great offensively, but the player of the game was easily starter Luke Harrison. Harrison, a lefty who had spent most of his career in the bullpen, looked magnificent in his 6.1 innings of work. Just two hits were surrendered to the Rebels. Those were paired with his six strikeouts against a team that would go on to score 15 runs against No. 15 Clemson a day later. That’s the Max Weiner effect.

Heading into Sunday, Texas was one win away from a dominant weekend in Arlington, something that didn’t seem possible just a few years prior. Facing former conference rivals Oklahoma State, Texas turned to transfer Kade Bing to take down the Cowboys.

Bing looked like he’d be able to get through the first without any problems, even after hitting the leadoff batter of the game, but a walk, a single and yet another hit by pitch was all Schlossnagle needed to see, hooking the lefty for returning starter Max Grubbs after just 0.2 IP.

Oklahoma State scored four runs in the first three innings, all credited to Bing and freshman lefty Dylan Volantis in the third. But by the end of inning No. 5 the game was all but over. The two teams were tied through four, but a Texas two-out rally off the back of mishaps and errors from the Cowboys led to eight UT runs in the fifth.

Freshman DH Cole Chamberlain started it off with a 3-2 walk, while Mendoza and Kimble Schuessler reached on errors with two outs. From there, extra base hits from Rodriguez, Belyeu and Gasparino brought the lead to seven runs, and more errors helped Jalin Flores score to make it eight runs. Texas had now scored 25 runs in 22 innings of play.

While the bullpen game wasn’t perfect for Texas, especially with a poor eighth inning from Cody Howard and Aiden Moffatt, Texas used nine different pitchers to secure the Sunday win. The Longhorns would end up winning the game 14-8, an explosive showing from the offense that saw superb games from the trio of Rodriguez, Belyeu and Gasparino.

That trio has turned into an early set of stars for the Longhorns, with all three eclipsing a 1.400 OPS and four XBHs. Belyeu was crowned the unofficial MVP of the tournament by Texas baseball’s social media accounts with a .571 average, six runs, five RBI, and two bombs.

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Texas starts the year 2-1 after a successful Arlington trip, with its next game coming quickly against Houston this Tuesday at 6:30 PM.

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