Texas escapes with a win in a far-too-close game against Dartmouth in home opener

6,307 was the reported number of fans for Texas baseball’s 4-3 home-opening victory, but you’d have had a tough time getting the real number past 400 when scanning the crowd at the Disch.

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To be fair to those 5,900 other ticket holders, why should they be expected to come out? They would have been treated to near freezing temperatures and a matchup against the lowly Dartmouth Big Green, a team that won just four games two seasons ago.

Instead, the rowdy group of stragglers, retirees and truant infants were treated to an unfortunately nail-biting event in Austin.

game won at home 🤘#HookEm pic.twitter.com/rLdq0vqrC5

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 21, 2025

Texas baseball shot out with an early two runs in the first inning and it looked like we were in for a long one filled with offense from the team that mercy-ruled Ole Miss just six days prior. Instead, the Big Green’s pitching and scrappy offense battled throughout, and by the end of the eighth inning it was a 4-3 ballgame in favor of Texas.

Every person in the ballpark was thinking the same thing: how did we get here?

Texas struggled against Dartmouth pitcher Marco Dumsky, who gave up just two runs in his 4 1/3 innings of work. After the first inning where the Longhorns got to him early, Dumsky settled in and gave up no earned runs for the rest of his outing. Texas registered just three hits against him and a pair of Big Green relievers, all of which threw at a softer velocity, incorporated change ups and looping curves to throw off timings.

“I think the thing for us today is, like, when you swing it, you have to swing it,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said about the aggressiveness of his batters. “And we had this conversation before the game. (Assistant coach Troy Tulowitzki) had a long conversation with them about when you decide to swing, you don’t swing the bat at the speed of the pitch, you don’t slow your bat down. A lot of balls hit down the right field line seats were just nonaggressive, especially from the right handed hitters.”

Texas’ bats stalled outside of two main contributors, Tommy Farmer and Kimble Schuessler. They combined for for five hits, two RBI and two runs on the game. The pair had all three of Texas’ XBH’s, with Farmer registering a pair of doubles.

“It’s definitely tough. Opening weekend, we’re facing some really good pitchers, maybe upper 90s guys, and (Dartmouth doesn’t) really have the velocity, but, you know, they have the pitch ability,” Schuessler said. “But we’re all good hitters, so we’re good enough to make that adjustment.”

The Big Green manufactured their offense through patience. LHP Jared Spencer was “not missing by much” as Schlossnagle put it, but Dartmouth’s keen eyes and conservative approach lead to five walks for the starter.

After Spencer, RHP Ruger Riojas looked poised to keep this game under wraps. He cleaned up Spencer’s base runner in the fifth, made quick work of the sixth and struck out two in the seventh. But just like the problems that arose against Lousiville, the fourth inning of his relief stint got to him. Dartmouth hit two quick singles on three pitches, this inning showing aggression toward the reliever. Just nine pitches into the inning, Riojas had surrendered four hits and two runs and left the bases loaded.

But in stepped Thomas Burns, a transfer from Arizona State who was about to create a new chapter of his baseball career.

“I had always started my entire life so this was a super fun opportunity, and I love it,” Burns said as he entered a baseball game for the first time as a relief pitcher.

Burns, known for his fireballing tempo and emotional pitching, instantly got to work, striking out Dartmouth’s catcher Zackarie Casebonne for the second out of the inning. Two pitches later Texas was out of the inning thanks to a pop-up to center. In the most pivotal moment of the game, Burns stepped up.

Texas, yet again, was quiet offensively in the bottom of the eighth, Schlossnagle had a decision to make. Return the right hander to the bump, or bring in lefty Will Mercer, the more traditional closer?

“He’s turned into this short stint reliever that pitches with some emotion,” Schlossnagle said. “And sometimes when you make when you do that and get out of the inning, and then you have to come back in, you have to go back out like you’ve got to find that (emotion) again.”

Burns did exactly that, battling back from a 2-0 count to strikeout the leadoff batter, who had made a villain of himself while trying to pump up his dugout after the second pitch of the at-bat. Instead of being the game tying run, he was sent back to the dugout.

Burns lost a 3-2 battle to the next hitter, setting up the Big Green’s three and four hitters to potentially tie or go ahead the game, but there was nothing there for Dartmouth. Burns brought the the second out of the inning to a two strike count, inciting a foul out to right. Then, the cleanup hitter missed the second pitch of the AB, flying an easy one out to right field. Texas had survived an unexpected close one in Austin.

“Getting the opportunity to play at the University of Texas, honestly, has been super surreal,” Burns said after the save. “And getting the opportunity to come out of the bullpen, that’s my first save ever, is a really cool experience, no matter who we’re playing.”

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Burns was credited with the save while Riojas was the winning pitcher as Texas improves to 3-1 on the season. The Longhorns will face off against the Big Green once again tomorrow at noon, this time with a chance to charge some energy into the offense and win the first series of the Schlossnagle era.