Jeff Howe

The Longhorns will go for the series win at 2 p.m. The game is on SEC Network+. The program is honoring the 1975 national championship team today.

If I had to deal with some of the shenanigans he dealt with as a player, I’d disappear too. Hopefully, this is a step in getting Chris Simms back to campus for a game, at least.

Bailey’s final three were Texas, UCLA and Tech. That doesn’t look like a list where winning a championship is the top priority. BTW, I hold nothing against a guy looking to get paid out of the portal. If that’s what some guys are looking for, there are plenty of schools that can and will make it happen. I don’t want this to sound like sour grapes or say Bailey wasn’t a culture fit. It just could’ve been a deal where Texas didn’t check enough boxes for him, for whatever reason.

AUSTIN, Texas — When Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner recruited Jared Spencer out of the NCAA transfer portal last summer, they anticipated he’d be a starting pitcher. It wasn’t a certainty considering the 6-foot-3-inch, 210-pound southpaw only made 11 starts in three seasons at Indiana State. What Spencer did in Friday’s 5-1 win over No. 3 Georgia provided further evidence that their hunch was correct. The work Spencer has done under Weiner’s tutelage helped him win the job heading up the weekend rotation in the Longhorns’ first season in the SEC, playing the role of staff ace to perfection in front of 7,246 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. “Max felt like we could get him some extra pitches,” Schlossnagle said regarding Spencer's recruitment. With Weiner’s help, Spencer developed a changeup to go along with the fastball and slider he relied on heavily during his time with the Sycamores. “He can really pitch,” Schlossnagle said. “I think he’s showing professional baseball he’s capable of being a starting pitcher.” Spencer once again showed the SEC he’s worthy of being the ace of the pitching staff for No. 5 Texas (24-4, 9-1 SEC), setting the tone for a critical three-game conference series against the Bulldogs. Running his fastball up to 97 mph and mixing it with a slider he used to ring up eight of the 11 Georgia (29-3, 8-2) batters he struck out, Spencer shut the Bulldogs down to the tune of a season-low one run on two hits while throwing a career-high 111 pitches in 7.2 brilliant innings on the bump. When asked how he’d describe the win, which allowed the Longhorns to keep pace with No. 1 Tennessee (the reigning national champions no-hit Texas A&M in a 10-0 run-rule victory in Knoxville on Friday) atop the SEC standings, Schlossnagle said it was because Texas had “a great pitcher.” “To me, the game begins and ends with starting pitching, even though it’s not as prevalent these days to see guys go deep in games,” said Schlossnagle, who mentioned the two-hit, complete-game shutout with 14 strikeouts No. 7 LSU got from Kade Anderson in a 2-0 win over No. 10 Oklahoma on Thursday. Spencer, Schlossnagle said, “is right up there” with the Tigers' dominant lefty, especially after what he did to a Georgia lineup that entered the game leading Division I home runs per game (2.71) and slugging percentage (.629) while ranking second in hits (339), runs per game (10.5) and on-base percentage (.466) with a .324 team batting average that was No. 14 nationally before Spencer befuddled the Bulldog bats. “The story is Spencer,” Schlossnagle said. “You’re holding down that offense. The wind was blowing in early, but the balls we hit went out, and the one ball they hit went out. They're certainly capable of changing the game with one swing.” Georgia left fielder Nolan McCarthy’s seventh home run of the season was a 391-foot blast to left field in the top of the seventh inning. Thankfully, the Longhorns had a 5-0 lead at the time, with an RBI double by Kimble Schuessler and two-run home runs by Casey Borba and Will Gasparino (his seventh in the team’s last six games) doing the damage in the middle innings. It’s a lot to toe the rubber as the Friday starter for a program that’s won six national championships and whose tradition of starting pitching is second to none. Still, whether it’s embracing the role as the staff ace, shaking off a home run that broke up a shutout or laughing after firing a pitch over the head of Rylan Galvan to the backstop in the eighth inning, Spencer’s mental makeup is helping him climb the ranks of starting pitchers in the SEC as much or more than his electric array of pitches. “He's a big, strong guy from Michigan that doesn't get phased by things,” Schlossnagle said. “What's really awesome about Spence is he had to go through a lot of summer school stuff to get enough credits to transfer into Texas after three years of college. It's really hard to do. He could've said 'screw that' at any time and signed because he got drafted. It tells you a lot about him that he went through that because he wanted to be here. “He and Max together are a great combination.” After getting the Longhorns started on the right foot against the Bulldogs, Spencer ranks among the SEC leaders in innings pitched (tied for fourth) and strikeouts (sixth). Spencer is the face of a Texas pitching staff that came into the series ranked No. 3 nationally in ERA (3.13), sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (6.99) and ninth in walks and hits allowed per nine innings pitched (a 1.19 WHIP). Even with Spencer surrendering the home run to McCarthy, the Longhorns have allowed an SEC-low 15 long balls through 28 games. Texas has given up the third-fewest hits in the SEC (186), while a .212 batting average for the Longhorns’ opponents is tied for the third-best in the conference. With Spencer leading the charge and Weiner working his magic behind the scenes, a pitching revival is afoot on the Forty Acres. For his part, Spencer isn’t thinking too far into the future. Instead, he's living by Weiner's advice, taking a one-pitch-at-a-time approach to his final college baseball season. That's helping him embrace his role and have fun while doing his best to put Texas in the win column whenever he's given the ball. “I'm taking it day by day, enjoying it while I'm there,” Spencer said. “[I’m] grateful for the opportunity that I have. I’ll enjoy it and have fun while I can.” View full news story

FINAL: Texas 5, Georgia 1

Volantis induces a 6-4-3 double play to end the game. What a night for the Longhorns!

M8: Texas 5, Georgia 1

The Longhorns work around two walks to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard.

What a great play Flores! He dives for one in the hole and flips it to Borba for the force out to end the inning!

The tying run is on deck with two outs in the top of the eighth.

Back-to-back walks and that'll be it for Spencer. Dylan Volantis is coming into the game.

Count is full to Burnett.

Burnett should be the last batter Spencer faces, no matter what happens.

Alford walks. Spencer is up to 105 pitches.

Spencer has fired 11 strikeouts. His 98th pitch of the night was the second out of the eighth.