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    Jeff Howe
    The simplest explanation as to why Texas’ time at the College World Series ended after three games, two of which were losses to Georgia, including a 2-0 season-ending defeat at the hands of the Bulldogs on Tuesday, is that the offense didn't do enough to back up an overall winning performance by the pitching staff. 
    The Longhorns got the bulk of their production in Omaha from the middle of the order, with Ethan Mendoza, Anthony Pack Jr. and Adrian Rodriguez doing most of the damage Jim Schlossnagle’s bats inflicted. Those three, who could all potentially return to form the nucleus of the 2027 squad, went a combined 17-for-34 at the plate, scored seven of the team’s 15 runs, drove in 14 and recorded six extra-base hits (including home runs by Pack and Rodriguez in Monday’s 14-2 rout of Alabama).
    The rest of the Longhorn lineup had a woeful 4-for-61 showing in Omaha, recording 26 of the offense’s 33 strikeouts. Blake Peterson’s RBI groundout late in the win over the Crimson Tide was the team’s only RBI in Omaha that didn’t come from Mendoza, Pack or Rodriguez, with Aiden Robbins’ leadoff double against Alabama accounting for the only extra-base hit that didn’t come from the aforementioned trio.
    Texas wouldn’t have gotten to Omaha if not for the efforts of Robbins and Carson Tinney. Nevertheless, the All-American transfer tandem went 3-for-20 in what’s expected to be their only respective College World Series appearances in burnt orange, accounting for twice as many strikeouts (10) as runs scored (five).
    In hindsight, unexpectedly losing Jack Moroknek and Kaleb Freeman to the draft and Jonah Williams to an early-season shoulder injury lowered the offense’s ceiling. Robbins and Tinney carried the Longhorns as far as they could. While Mendoza, Pack and Rodriguez did their parts to pick up the slack, Texas didn’t get enough offensively from the bottom of the order, which had to rely on projected reserves Ashton Larson and Dariyan Pendergrass to step into everyday roles, alongside utility man Temo Becerra and veteran corner infielder Casey Borba.
    Considering what the final product looked like compared to what Schlossnagle and Troy Tulowitzki envisioned it would be last summer, the staff maximized the offense’s potential. There just wasn’t enough juice left to squeeze to get by Georgia and into the national semifinals.
    ***
    The draft and the transfer portal will force Schlossnagle’s staff to work feverishly to reload for the 2027 season.
    Robbins and Tinney will be drafted high enough that the thought of either returning to Texas is, at best, a pipe dream.
    The premium Schlossnagle puts on his catcher means replacing Tinney (Ian Armstrong of St. Mary’s and Nolan Traeger of TCU, who’s rumored to be headed to Arkansas, are the top portal candidates with Clemson’s Nate Savoie recently committing to Texas A&M) might be the staff’s highest priority in the portal. With Pack returning for his sophomore season and Williams coming off injury, expect the Longhorns to target at least two outfielders to compete for the jobs left open by Robbins and Pendergrass (out of eligibility).
    Texas has already added Texas Tech's Linkin Garcia to the infield mix for next season, specifically with the idea that he’ll play third base. Rodriguez will be back for his junior season, but what happens beyond those two spots is up in the air, especially with the impending decisions facing Mendoza and Borba.
    Specifically, it’s where in the draft either gets selected (if they’re taken) and what a potential signing bonus would look like compared to the financial package Texas could offer for either to return. If Borba returns, sources have told On Texas Football that it would be to play first base. He and Mendoza can also offer the Longhorns flexibility with the designated hitter role (especially with Mendoza’s shoulder preventing him from playing second base for the last month of the season).
    Maddox Monsour can provide depth in the outfield or as a middle infielder. Monsour, Larson and Presley Courville are among the projected returnees who can create competition for spots in the fall and winter.
    ***
    Schlossnagle has already expressed his excitement regarding Sam Cozart joining the starting rotation as a sophomore. Cozart and Dylan Volantis will form arguably the best 1-2 punch in the country, which on its own makes Texas a contender to win the SEC and get back to Omaha in 2027.
    Luke Harrison and Ruger Riojas are gone, along with Max Grubbs (who underwent season-ending elbow surgery in May). Schlossnagle has indicated that Thomas Burns is likely to leave school via the draft and Haiden Leffew is draft-eligible.
    While the Longhorns will look for at least two pitchers in the portal, whether they target starters or relievers depends on how Schlossnagle and Max Weiner view the roles of the freshmen who will be back as sophomores. Brett Crossland was one of the team’s most reliable bullpen hands, Brody Walls seemed to gain confidence with each outing and Michael Winter bounced back from a midseason absence, putting up 2.2 scoreless innings in the NCAA Tournament.
    Jeff Howe
    Texas had chances to extend its season in Tuesday’s College World Series elimination game against Georgia. Unfortunately, the Longhorns went 0-for-8 with runners on base and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position in a 2-0 loss to the Bulldogs, making for a disappointing end to the team’s first trip to Omaha under Jim Schlossnagle.
    Texas (46-15) ends the 2026 season three wins shy of the national championship series, which the program hasn’t reached since 2009.
    "The bounces didn't go our way tonight," Schlossnagle said. "Really proud of our team and the season we had, finishing in Omaha, and look forward to being back."
    While the offense struggled, failing to record an extra-base hit (four hits total) and striking out 12 times against Georgia’s (53-13) pitching staff on Monday, Luke Harrison and Sam Cozart kept the Longhorns in the game.
    In his last appearance for the program, Harrison became the first Texas pitcher since Brooks Kieschnick in 1993 to strike out 11 batters in a College World Series game, holding one of the nation’s top offenses to two hits and one run in 5.2 innings. Cozart suffered some hard luck in his College World Series debut, including Dariyan Pendergrass’ overturned diving catch in shallow center for the first out of the seventh inning, which was immediately followed by third baseman Tre Phelps’ single through the right side against the shift to set the table for the Bulldogs’ second run. Still, the freshman scattered three hits and struck out six Georgia batters in 3.1 innings out of the bullpen, including a strikeout with the bases loaded in the top of the sixth.
    "I think just the moment, it was big, but I knew that all I had to do was go give it everything I've got," Harrison said. "I really felt like I gave every ounce of what I had today. Obviously, the results were solid, but we weren't able to come out with a win."
    The Longhorns had a chance to break the game open in the first inning, putting Dylan Vigue on the ropes with two on and one out after a single up the middle by Carson Tinney and Anthony Pack Jr. working a walk. With a mound visit helping settle him down, Vigue got Adrian Rodriguez to fly out to left field and struck out Ethan Mendoza to get out of the jam.
    “Most of his starts, he kind of opens for them," Schlossnagle said. "If he gets it going, then they'll leave him in there a little bit. They had the bullpen up and rolling in the first inning and we had a good guy at the plate in Mendoza — uses the right side of the field really well. He just chased the pitch off the plate.
    "We let them get confident and then he started making better pitches and we kept chasing out of the strike zone," he added. "In these games, with two great teams, it's those little moments that change it."
    Texas had its next best chance to score with Rodriguez up and runners on first and third with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. Justin Byrd, who struck out four and allowed two hits in five innings of relief after Vigue (two hits, two walks and eight strikeouts in five innings) walked Ashton Larson on four pitches to open the bottom of the sixth, got Rodriguez to ground out to first base, ending the last scoring threat the Longhorns mustered.
    In the end, a leadoff walk drawn by first baseman Brennan Hudson in the fifth inning and Phelps' RBI double to left field later in the frame, and center fielder Ryan Lujo's RBI sacrifice fly to left field to score right fielder Ryan Black (which took reviews of Tinney's attempted tag at the plate and whether or not Black left third base early when tagging up to confirm the run) was all of the scoring Georgia needed to end Schlossnagle's second season on the Forty Acres.
    Schlossnagle's roster will look a lot different in 2027. Nevertheless, he and the Texas coaches will look to Cozart, Pack, Rodriguez and All-American pitcher Dylan Volantis to lead the program's next quest for an elusive seventh national championship.
    "They need to remember this feeling, what it means to be at Texas, what it means to be in Omaha and the fact that our season is over and we didn't accomplish the ultimate thing, which is winning the national title," Schlossnagle said. "It moves on to them."
    Jeff Howe
    Jim Schlossnagle was ready to go to bat for Adrian Rodriguez. Thankfully, the Texas coach didn’t need to intervene on a scoring decision in Monday’s 14-2 thumping of Alabama in a College World Series elimination game.
    The decision to award Rodriguez a second-inning triple instead of a double with an advancement on an outfield error was historic. Rodriguez would’ve been 5-for-5 regardless of how the hit was scored on an afternoon at Charles Schwab Field when he tied single-game College World Series records with seven RBI and 12 total bases.
    Still, Schlossnagle felt Rodriguez rightfully earned a cycle. When the official scorebook was changed late in the Longhorns’ rout of the Crimson Tide, the sophomore became the third player in the 79-year history of the College World Series to hit for the cycle.
    “I mean, had it not been changed by the end of the game, yeah, I certainly would have said something,” Schlossnagle said. “I thought that was a clean triple. I'm glad they made that change during the game.”
    For Rodriguez, who injured his left hamate bone last season, underwent surgery in the fall and missed time this season when post-surgery complications required a procedure to remove a surgical screw (Rodriguez, as it turned out, was allergic to the cobalt screw used in the initial surgery), his record-setting performance in helping Texas (46-14) advance to an elimination game against either Georgia or Oklahoma on Tuesday (6 p.m., ESPN) highlighted his late-season surge.
    To turn things around, Rodriguez had to get back on the field.
    If Rodriguez had been healthy the whole season, Schlossnagle said, the shortstop would be hitting well over .300 with upwards of 15 home runs. While Rodriguez, who didn’t hit his first home run until an 11-4 road win over Vanderbilt on April 26 and was hitting .258 after going 1-for-5 in a 14-9 road loss to Tennessee on May 9, didn’t have the kind of season one of the top prospects in the 2027 MLB Draft was expected to have, he’s making up for lost time in Omaha.
    “It's definitely been up and down throughout the season,” Rodriguez said. “I really owe it to all the guys that have been having my back throughout the whole year and especially all the coaches that have had my back when I haven't been right mentally.
    “It's been a grind, but I'm happy that we're doing it right now in the College World Series.”
    Rodriguez and assistant coach Troy Tulowitzki went to work after Rodriguez’s eight-game absence, including some swing changes before the series in Knoxville against the Volunteers. Additionally, the switch-hitting Rodriguez devoted himself to hitting left-handed upon his return to help deal with the lingering discomfort in his hand.
    To quickly adapt to an optimal hitting approach, Rodriguez had to “get more simple.”
    “Just keeping my head in the same position,” Rodriguez said. “Being able to see the ball better has been a big factor.”
    Since going 3-for-4 with a three-run home run in a win over Tennessee on April 10, Rodriguez has reached base safely in 12 consecutive games (a 13-game on-base streak after the win over Alabama) and gone 26-for-45 at the plate, raising his batting average to .328. Rodriguez is having a postseason for the ages, going 18-for-27 (.667) in the NCAA Tournament with seven doubles, a triple, two home runs, 16 RBI and 33 total bases.
    It’s a white-hot stretch that has Texas in the hunt for a national championship and has Schlossnagle feeling good about the 2027 roster, of which Rodriguez will be the headliner among the Longhorns’ position players.
    “He's a potential first-rounder,” Schlossnagle said. "Hopefully, this summer, we can get him fully healthy, but he's a great player.”
    Jeff Howe
    With its season on the line in an elimination game at the College World Series, Texas rode an offensive explosion to a 14-2 rout of Alabama at Charles Schwab Field on Monday to stay alive in Omaha.
    The Longhorns throttled the Crimson Tide to the tune of 13 hits, seven of which went for extra bases. Adrian Rodriguez had a historic 5-for-5 afternoon, becoming the third player in the 79-year history of the College World Series to hit for the cycle with a two-run double in the first inning, a two-run triple in the second, a single in the fifth and a two-run home run to right field in the bottom of the sixth.
    With the win, Texas (46-14) advances to another elimination game on Tuesday (6 p.m., ESPN) against the loser of Monday’s winner’s bracket game between Georgia and Oklahoma. The Longhorns avoided a winless stay in Omaha by pouncing on Alabama's (42-21) left-handed starting pitcher Zane Adams, roughing him up for seven earned runs on seven hits in 1.2 innings.
    Adams, who worked six scoreless innings against Texas at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on April 18, opened his 63-pitch outing by giving up a double to Aiden Robbins (1-for-4 with three runs scored) and walking Carson Tinney (0-for-1, four walks and two runs scored). After back-to-back doubles by Ethan Mendoza (3-for-4, two RBI and two runs scored) and Rodriguez, Texas had control of the game with a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first and never looked back.
    Anthony Pack Jr. (3-for-5, four RBI, a two-run home run and three runs scored), Mendoza and Rodriguez shoveled more dirt on Alabama with three consecutive run-scoring hits in a four-run second. With a 7-1 lead when he took the mound for the third inning, Ruger Riojas settled in and kept the Crimson Tide bats at bay, recording a quality start with two earned runs allowed in six innings.
    Striking out 11 in five innings in a win over Alabama earlier this season, Riojas scattered six hits, walked two and struck out seven. Riojas threw 105 pitches before giving way to the bullpen, with Brody Walls, Ethan Walker and Cody Howard combining for three scoreless innings to end the game.
    Jeff Howe
    A disastrous first inning set the tone for Saturday’s 7-1 loss to Georgia in the College World Series, sending Texas to the loser’s bracket in Omaha with an elimination game against Alabama coming up on Monday (1 p.m., ESPN).
    Dylan Volantis walked third baseman Tre Phelps, setting the table for left field Ryan Lujo’s two-run home run down the left-field line. From there, a throwing error by Carson Tinney on a dropped third strike and one of a career-high four batters Volantis hit loaded the bases for shortstop Kolby Branch.
    Volantis struck out Branch, but Tinney’s second throwing error of the inning on a dropped third strike allowed two runs to score. The Bulldogs’ four-run first put the Longhorns in a hole from which they couldn’t emerge, even with Volantis rebounding with seven strikeouts and four hits allowed in 6.1 innings.
    Nevertheless, the self-inflicted wounds mounted for Texas (45-14), whose bats suffered 15 strikeouts at the hands of Georgia (53-12) right-handed pitcher Joey Volchko. The Bulldogs got a complete game from Volchko, who walked just one batter and allowed only four singles, including Ethan Mendoza’s opposite RBI base hit in the top of the fifth, which scored Adrian Rodriguez (2-for-3) and accounted for the only run of the game for the Longhorns.
    The loss marked the sixth consecutive CWS-opening loss for Texas, which hasn’t won an opener in Omaha since 2009. That was the last time the Longhorns reached the national championship series.
    At the same time, the 2014 and 2021 trips to the College World Series saw Texas battle through the loser’s bracket to reach a winner-take-all national semifinal before falling to a pair of eventual national champions, Vanderbilt (2014) and Mississippi State (2021), respectively. If the Longhorns are going to make a run at the championship series, however, the miscues from Saturday's loss must be eliminated.
    When the dust settled, Texas committed three errors, threw two wild pitches and hit four batters. Only two of the seven runs Volantis allowed were earned.
    Seven of the 15 strikeouts against Volchko were recorded by the first three hitters in the lineup. Tinney’s one-out walk in the ninth inning was the only time he reached base (0-for-3 with two strikeouts); Aiden Robbins and Anthony Pack Jr. both went 0-for-4, with Robbins striking out twice and Pack fanning three times against Volchko.
    The Longhorns took two of three from the Crimson Tide in April at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Alabama (42-20) suffered a 9-0 loss to Oklahoma in Saturday’s first game at Charles Schwab Field.
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