Jim Schlossnagle has brought the Texas Longhorns to his first Super Regional as the team's head coach.
The Texas Longhorns have advanced to their 14th Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament in program history after making quick work of the Austin Regional this weekend.
The No. 6 overall seed finished its three-game sweep with a 6-4 win over UC Santa Barbara on Sunday, pushing the Horns to a record of 43-13 on the season under head coach Jim Schlossnagle. This is Texas' first Supers appearance in the Schlossnagle era.
Despite trailing 1-0 to the Gauchos, the high-powered Longhorns offense rallied late, beginning with a two-run home run by Aiden Robbins to put Texas ahead for good in the seventh inning. Robbins was named the regional's Most Outstanding Player after batting .429, hitting four homers, driving in nine, and posting an OPS of 1.815.
Ruger Riojas picked up the win on the bump after tossing 5.0 innings of one-run ball, only allowing three hits to UCSB. He walked one and struck out six before six other Longhorns got the ball throughout the game. The victory is credited to Thomas Burns, who struck out three over his perfect 1.2 innings.
With the go-ahead run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, Luke Harrison was called to the mound and slammed the door by forcing an infield popup to end the game.
"Really proud of Ruger, I thought Ruger was outstanding," Schlossnagle said in his postgame press conference opening statement. "I thought his stuff was back to pretty much normal ... he hadn't pitched in two weeks.
"He did a great job, and we fought through some ugliness in the middle of the game, and then, obviously, Aiden's swing ... Great players save you. They make great plays and make you look like you can coach."
After two games of blowout baseball, Schlossnagle remembered that no game in the tourney is guaranteed. It was evident on Sunday afternoon, but the Horns live to see another day.
"We told them before the weekend started that this would be really, really hard," the coach said. "Next weekend is going to be really, really hard [when] you have great teams like this that are confident and playing for their lives, and you're getting closer and closer to Omaha, then it's going to be tough."
Texas will continue to host at UFCU Disch-Falk Field as the 11-seed Oregon Ducks come to town for the best-of-3 Super Regional series beginning next week.
