'I want them to feel it. We have a lot to play for', Texas Baseball hits the ground running after early SEC tournament defeat

When Texas baseball throws the first pitch of the Austin Regional at Noon on Friday, May 29, it will be just the second game of baseball Texas plays in a 13-game span.

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That’s thanks to what head coach Jim Schlossnagle noted as a ‘disgusting’ SEC tournament appearance, where Texas scored just one run in an 8-1 loss to Arkansas in the quarterfinals, the only game Texas played.

While the majority of the discussion centered around the decision to start Cody Howard and fully rest pitchers like Ruger Riojas and Sam Cozart, the real issue was Texas’ offense. Star Arkansas starter Hunter Dietz exited the game in the first inning. Though Texas would score a run with a bases-loaded opportunity, the Longhorns were completely blanketed in the next eight innings by two separate relievers.

On one side of the coin, Texas really needed the rest it got in the back half of May. The Longhorns exited just their second series loss of the season against Tennessee, battered and bruised. Ethan Mendoza had a throwing shoulder injury, Ruger Riojas dealt with soreness, Dariyan Pendergrass was still on the sideline, Anthony Pack had a small injury in the weight room and there is always concern about the health of Adrian Rodriguez.

Texas was lucky to get Missouri to end the year, which allowed them to rest Riojas even more, get Mendoza up to speed as a DH, allow Pendergrass to get real game reps and gave them the leeway to rest Aiden Robbins as he recovered from illness.

But on the other side of things, this team hasn’t played a high level of truly competitive baseball since May 3rd against Mississippi State, almost four whole weeks removed from Friday’s game.

For that reason, Jim Schlossnagle had a clear plan for his ball club exiting Hoover.

“We practiced as soon as we got off the bus on Saturday. We practiced yesterday. We had about two and a half innings worth of inter-squad at-bats for all the kind of regular players,” Schlossnagle said.

His goal after Friday’s loss was simple: play as if it were a regular week of baseball.

He wanted his team to practice, even in a more limited capacity, on Saturday and Sunday when they returned home, mimicking a regular weekend series of baseball, one they’ll have to replicate in regional play.

“We’re gonna err on the side of work, the saying, ‘nothing works unless you do,’ that’s the one we’re living by right now,” Schlossnagle said.

As you’re reading this right now, Texas is heavily back to work. They played a seven-inning Tuesday inter-scrimmage game, with players taking real ABs against live arms for 21 outs worth of baseball.

It’s not the exact same as playing a midweek: Texas isn’t testing the base paths and gloves out in the field, and they’re only going through seven innings of work. But there is arguably more competition to be had in an intra-squad, especially for the pitchers hoping to earn a chance at pitching over the weekend.

“We’ve rested plenty, our players admittedly miss playing baseball, and when you only play one game in two weeks, that’s not a good thing,” Schlossnagle added. “So we need to mimic the game and mimic kind of our week, you know, play Sunday, play Tuesday, have our Wednesday practice, kind of the way you hear a football coach talk to prepare for the weekend.”

It’s not ideal, and he’s the first to admit it. Texas is not entering this tournament with the same number of reps as, say, UC Santa Barbara, the No. 2 seed, which played three games in their conference tournament alongside a decently competitive final weekend series of the regular season against UC Riverside.

The Gauchos are on schedule, and Texas is working to replicate that in a practice setting.

“I want them to feel it. We have a lot to play for,” Schlossnagle said.

The rest Texas got was well earned, and in some ways was very necessary for a heavily banged up roster affecting many key players. The Longhorns had to put all focus on being their best for this regional, even if that meant not throwing their best arms at every available opportunity.

But the time to recover and get healthy has passed, and this team is in need of a jolt of energy and effort leading into this regional.

Texas and Holy Cross are set to begin at Noon on Friday, May 29. The Longhorns can look forward to yet another intense practice before then.