What the players said following Texas' 8-1 loss to Arkansas in the SEC Baseball Tournament
After finishing 2nd in the SEC this season, the Texas Longhorns looked unmotivated in their 8-1 loss to Arkansas on Friday evening in the SEC Conference Tournament from Hoover, Alabama. Here’s what the players had to say.
[Sign up for Inside Texas for $1 and get THREE MONTHS of Premium Access!]
Q. Yesterday, Alabama was run-ruled by Florida. Is there an advantage, disadvantage from your perspective from getting the whole week off to playing today on Friday, having to wait? Would you rather have a game yesterday to get the jitters out or is there an advantage, disadvantage for that?
LUKE HARRISON: I think it’s whatever you make it. The right kind of players like to show up and play baseball any day, and I think that’s what we got, and we just didn’t play our best baseball today.
Q. Luke, your thoughts about coming out of the bullpen today and how might that prepare you for a possible scenario like that in the tournament?
LUKE HARRISON: Yeah, I was fired up to get to pitch this weekend, you know, in any kind of role. It’s good to be down there with the fellas in the bullpen and come out there and do something I haven’t done in a little bit, which is come out of the bullpen and pitch. It’s a good reminder that the game doesn’t change. Just got to go do me and the rest will take care of itself.
Q. Carson, what did you see from Gabe Gaeckle that made him so effective against your lineup?
CARSON TINNEY: No, he had his A game today. He brought his stuff, threw a lot of strikes, and we didn’t put good swings on the baseball. I think that he just came ready to play and our hitters weren’t as successful as we had hoped and wanted to be.
- 1
Greg Sankey denies super league talks with Big Ten
- 2
NewDave Doeren thinking about ACC Championship, not retirement
- 3
Update on NCAA's age-based eligibility proposal
- 4
Tennessee intel: The latest on the Chaz Coleman situation
- 5
10 fascinating transfer moves that could shape teams in 2026
Get the On3 Top 10 Newsletter in your inbox every morning
By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.
Q. Carson, building off of that, what did you see from the lineup? You mentioned not very good swings, but I guess what did you see that made those swings not very good, in your eyes?
CARSON TINNEY: I think that they — honestly, they came more ready to play than us. They came out firing on all cylinders, and you saw that active on the first inning — during the first inning. I don’t think it was a lack of excitement or a lack of competitiveness. I think that it was just one of those days where we didn’t show up ready to play.
Q. What adjustments do you feel like you guys have to make? Eight guys left on base and also just having just four hits, what adjustments do you feel like coming into the regionals next week that you guys want to work on?
CARSON TINNEY: I don’t think there’s any physical adjustments necessary. It’s more so just a mental — just being a mental group of dogs, you could say. Like, we want to go up to the plate and be fearless in the box and we want to be feared by the opponent. Making sure our identity is sticking to that, I think, is the most important thing right now.
LUKE HARRISON: I think we just need to bring a lot of compete. If this is — you know, we can make this a rough one or we can make this a good thing for us, and I think that as long as we use this as fuel to make ourselves better in the next week and spend time investing in recovery and getting right for next Friday, I think we’ll be in a good spot. But like Carson said, we just need to go out and compete.
