Texas ready to kick off the Jim Schlossnagle era at UFCU Disch-Falk Field versus Dartmouth

After what feels like the first successful MLB stadium tournament in years for Texas Baseball, Jim Schlossnagle’s team will take the field at the Disch for the first time in his tenure.

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After Tuesday’s matchup against Houston was canceled due to weather concerns, Texas will kick off its season at UFCU Disch-Falk Field against Dartmouth. The Ivy Leaguers have yet to play their first game of the season, but there should be little concern about the results of these three games.

Dartmouth was a rock’s throw away from downright terrible in 2024. The Big Green returns zero hitters with an .800 or higher OPS, and the only pitcher on the staff with a sub-5.00 ERA and 1.5 WHIP, Drew Koenen, is now a part of the No. 2 Virginia Cavaliers after a strong freshman year in Hanover.

This will be the kind of weekend where Texas experiments with lineups, pitchers, and playstyles as Schlossnagle prepares his players for the Las Vegas Classic in just over a week.

Texas’ 2-1 start to the season came mostly off the back of dominant hitting performances from this already exciting lineup. Texas scored 27 runs in 26 innings against a top 25 team (Oklahoma State), an SEC opponent (Ole Miss) and a potential top-half ACC team (Louisville). In football terms, Texas just went 2-1 with wins against Miami, Nebraska, and Kentucky on 430 offensive yards per game. Not bad to start the season with a new coach.

We did learn a few things about this roster after this past weekend, but there are still some new pieces of the puzzle to look out for.

Schlossnagle made his starting lineup fairly clear over the weekend. The following players recorded double-digit at-bats and started all three games.

C: Rylan Galvan
1B: Kimble Schuessler
2B: Ethan Mendoza
3B: Adrian Rodriguez
SS: Jalin Flores
OF: Max Belyeu
OF: Will Gasparino
OF: Tommy Farmer IV

The only true surprise here is Farmer, who started just three games as a freshman in 2024. But with a new coach comes new opportunities, and Farmer’s combination of speed, defense and power have won over Schlossnagle. The true surprise of this group is that Easton Winfield, the talented ULM transfer left fielder, had been left off. After a 1-7 showing in the first two games, Winfield was benched in favor of freshman C/DH Cole Chamberlain for Sunday’s game against Oklahoma State.

There are a few things that still need to be ironed out with this group. The DH position is the obvious omission of this group, and Winfield, Chamberlain and Sunday pinch-hitter Casey Borba are the obvious candidates to take a hold of this spot. Thankfully for Schlossnagle, Farmer’s addition allows for any of the four outfielders to DH at any moment, and Borba can play either corner infield position. With Chamberlain and backup C Oliver Service both able to play behind the dish, it feels like the only players that don’t have an immediately strong backup bat are Flores and Mendoza. That’s really nice to have.

The spots in the order are also still being battled for. It seems like Schloss has figured out about half of this lineup. He wants Schuessler to work in the leadoff spot as the team’s best on-base option, even if he had a rough start to the season. Rodriguez was in the two hole in all three games, as was Belyeu in the four spot. Those all seem locked. The 8 and 9 spot in the order also stayed the same, with Galvan hitting 8th and Mendoza hitting 9th. Galvan could work his way up in the lineup, but it seems like Schlossnagle likes having the catcher and Mendoza at the bottom of the order.

So there will be a lot to watch in terms of the three spot and 5-7 in the order. That encompasses two outfielders, Flores and the DH. IT believes that Gasparino and Flores are the most likely to be in the three or five spots, but Farmer was slotted in those places for all three games. That said, Gasparino’s bat was too good in Arlington to keep him lower in the order, and Flores’ veteran bat and upside are ahead of Farmer at the moment.

On the pitching side of things, Texas has its aces. Jared Spencer hit 98 MPH in a great start against Louisville as the Friday starter, and Luke Harrison was the SEC Pitcher of the Week after 6.2 shutout innings against Ole Miss, a near complete game in the mercy rule.

There should be a lot of eyes on two parts of this staff. First, who is the closer? You’d hope Texas doesn’t need to bring in a true closer in any of these games, but you’d expect Schlossnagle to pitch his ninth inning guy in the ninth inning at some point this weekend just to make sure they are ready for the Vegas tournament.

Second, what are Sundays going to look like? Kade Bing didn’t look great as a starter, but how much of his early exit was already planned? Sundays are often bullpen games in the SEC, but Texas has around seven starters after Spencer and Harrison that could be gunning for that spot long term. That starting pitcher announcement will be an important one, and watching how big of a leash he is given for these games will be a good indicator of the future at the spot.

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Texas enters these games as heavy favorites, now sitting at the No. 16 spot in D1 Baseball’s Top 25, but that doesn’t mean these aren’t important games to win for Texas. Every game helps your resume as SEC play and later regionals approach, and the Longhorns are too young of a team to take any games off. The first pitch against Dartmouth is currently scheduled for 1 PM on Friday at the Disch, the first chance for Texas fans to see this new group at home