OTF Premium Baseball: Texas pitching staff displays elite potential in series sweep of Michigan State

AUSTIN, Texas — Carson Tinney transferred to Texas from Notre Dame, where he established himself as one of the top collegiate catchers in the country.

A finalist for the 2025 Buster Posey Award, which honors college baseball’s top catcher, Tinney has the presence and skills behind the plate to help a pitching staff maximize its potential. Seven games into the 2026 season, Tinney and the Longhorn pitchers are propping each other up, staking their claim to be labeled the nation’s top battery.

Asked how he’d rate the arms on pitching coach Max Weiner’s staff, Tinney said with a smile plastered on his face that it’s been “fun to catch” a group of hurlers that’s collectively twisted opposing hitters in knots en route to a 7-0 start.

“Best stuff I've been able to catch in my life so far,” Tinney said after Sunday’s 4-0 win over Michigan State, one in which he scored a run while going 1-for-3 with a double. Southpaw Dylan Volantis recorded a second consecutive dominant start, tossing seven scoreless innings and finishing a 91-pitch outing with a career-high nine strikeouts.

When Volantis, who continues to successfully develop a changeup he added to his repertoire in the offseason, was done, Weiner and Jim Schlossnagle turned the game over to the bullpen. Aided by a between-the-legs snag on a liner back to the mound, freshman Brett Crossland only needed five pitches to get through the eighth inning, paving the way for Thomas Burns to pump his 96 mph past the Spartan bats.

A one-out walk issued by Volantis in the seventh inning is the only runner No. 3 Texas allowed on base after the third inning. Volantis retired 13 batters in a row at one point, while Crossland and Burns combined to mow down each of the six batters they faced over two innings.

“It's a blast just because they dominate the zone,” said Tinney, who threw out two would-be base stealers in Saturday’s 3-1 win. “No complaints there.”

Michigan State (2-4) came into the series “swinging the bat well with a lot of confidence,” Schlossnagle said. The Spartans slugged five home runs, pounded out 23 hits (nine for extra bases) and scored 18 runs in a series win on the road over then-No. 8 Louisville last weekend.

The pitching staff ensured the Longhorns wouldn’t suffer the same fate. Nine different pitchers combined to record 32 strikeouts with only four walks and one earned run across three wins, a series sweep in which Texas posted a plus-13 run differential.

“We knew the pitching staff was going to be the strong suit of our club coming into the season,” Schlossnagle said. “Veterans and the new guys throw a lot of strikes, throw multiple pitches for strikes. We're certainly going to face better teams in our league. I mean, Michigan State has got a good team and I thought Lamar had a good club. I think UC Davis will be competitive in their conference. But we all know what's ahead of us.”

The Longhorns manufactured enough offense to get the job done on Sunday. Jonah Williams, who went 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI single, drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the first, followed by Casey Borba's RBI groundout. The last run of the game in the bottom of the fourth, when Anthony Pack Jr.’s attempt to steal second base resulted in a balk, scoring Ashton Larson from third base.

Schlossnagle knows Texas will face top-notch pitching in SEC play and beyond. Still, he believes the Longhorns will “be able to pitch with most teams,” which should make them tough to beat, even when the competition heats up.

“We just have to keep improving, keep the right guys healthy,” Schlossnagle said. “I was glad to see Volantis be out there for an extended period. That'll help him out moving forward. We just need to stay committed to the opening day mentality that these guys have.”