Texas battles through an hour-long inning, puts up 15 in Tuesday night win against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

Texas entered the fourth inning of a midweek matchup in calm, comfortable fashion. The Longhorns were up 4-0 thanks to some early homers from Ethan Mendoza and Rylan Galvan, and freshman RHP Jason Flores was dealing, still holding onto a no-hitter against Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

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What ensued in Austin for the next 57 minutes can only be described as an onslaught of painful mistakes, big swings and groans from the press box as the Longhorns and Islanders worked their way through one of the most painful innings of baseball you’ll ever see, even if the final score ended with Texas run-ruling the Islanders 15-5 in the eighth inning.

To start the top of the inning, Flores, who had been using his glove effectively throughout the game, overextended on a comebacker to the mound, overthrowing first baseman Kimble Schuessler and allowing the runner to advance to second with just one out on the inning. Flores got the next two batters to pop up to the left side, seemingly getting out of the inning carefree, but LF Easton Winfield made a bad judgment on the ball and allowed it to drop, allowing one runner to score and the batter to reach second. After Flores’ third HBP of the game, which put two runners on, head coach Jim Schlossnagle pulled the right-hander after 3.2 innings of one hit, one earned run baseball.

Connor McCreery came into relief, but his night was done before an A&M-CC player could even register an AB. He walked the first batter on a tough 3-2 count but wasn’t even close on his four pitches to the next man, walking in a run. Grayson Saunier quickly replaced McCreery, but he too walked in a run, each batter being at the bottom of the A&M-CC order. It was already a disastrous inning for the Longhorns, but the next A&M-CC batter made it worse, hitting a base hit to left for two RBI.

After a strikeout on the next batter ended the top of the fourth, these were the batting stats from that half inning: five runs on just two hits, two errors and combined walks and HBPs.

“You don’t like self imposed adversity in the free bases, because that’s that’s going to get you beat over time,” Schlossnagle said. “But also this is our opportunity to figure out who can do what, and the players will tell us who they are.”

But that was only half of the action from that fateful fourth inning. Texas batters were also ready to play, all starting off the back of a Schuessler leadoff walk. Here’s what happened next:

• Casey Borba legged out a double to left.
• Easton Winfield knocked Schuessler in on a grounder to the right side.
• Galvan walked.
• Borba got plunked in the back on a back-pick attempt, advancing him to home and Galvan to third.
• Mendoza walked on a 3-2 count.
• Max Belyeu walked on a 3-2 count.

Texas was 30 pitches into the inning and had the bases loaded with one out, already having reclaimed the lead that was lost in the top of the inning. A&M-Corpus Christi, taking a page out of the Longhorns’ book, walked Jalin Flores on three pitches, resulting in the third run of the inning. An Adrian Rodriguez fielder’s choice brought in run No. 4, setting up Will Gasparino with runners at the corners.

Gaspo took two quick balls before lacing a ball to deep right field, using those heavy Austin winds to carry it over the fence for the Longhorns’ third homer of the night. By the time Schuessler, up for the second time in the inning, grounded out on a 3-2 count, fans had almost been waiting for an hour for the fourth to end.

Still, they were happy to see yet another crooked inning from their Longhorns, scoring seven and extending the lead to six runs despite just two hits in the inning. The teams combined for nine free passes, three errors and 12 runs on just four hits, an absurd stat line and exactly why you have to love college baseball.

That's now the 6th time this year Texas baseball has scored seven or more runs in an inning.

It's been 11 games.

Crooked innings huh @NashTalksTexas

— Evan Vieth (@EvanVieth) March 5, 2025

The rest of the game went far quicker, much to the benefit of observing fans who needed to walk back to campus to retrieve their cars, with Texas leaning on two new arms from the pen: Hudson Hamilton and Bryce Navarre.

The two combined for two innings of one hit, three strikeouts and 0 run baseball after Ruger Riojas helped Saunier and eventually secured the win. The two pitchers each had their first appearances of the season and made a living off of throwing strikes and attacking batters, a trait Schlossnagle heavily values.

“So proud of Hamilton and Bryce Navarre. Hudson’s been through a lot during his time here, and coach Weiner has done an incredible job of remaking his delivery, giving him some real pitches, and he threw strikes and made good pitches,” Schlossnagle said. “And then Navarre, he is a guy that is very, very dear to me and to our coaching staff. He’s a guy who was committed to us at the previous school.”

Navarre, a former Texas A&M commit, was one of the most touted lefties in the 2024 class from the state of Texas, and he showed exactly why.

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Texas, now 10-1, will host Santa Clara this weekend before gearing up for both their first road and SEC series of the season, traveling to Starkville on March 14th to face the Mississippi State Bulldogs.