Texas baseball has started the 2026 season firing on all cylinders, beginning the year with a perfect 4–0 record after sweeping past the UC Davis Aggies on opening weekend before taking care of the Lamar Cardinals on Tuesday.
Texas will look to continue its positive momentum as it welcomes the Michigan State Spartans to UFCU Disch-Falk Field for a three-game series beginning on Friday, Feb. 20, and concluding on Sunday.
The Longhorns won’t overlook the Spartans, preparing for a challenge when they roll into Austin.
“You’re always looking to measure yourself against the best,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Michigan State has gotten off to a great start. This season will tell us what kind of team we have and what kind of team they have. … This is certainly going to be a step up, be a confident team. It’s pretty awesome, the team that doesn’t get outside very much goes to Louisville and plays clean baseball the way they did.”
Michigan State had a strong showing in its first action of the season, upsetting the then-No. 8 Louisville Cardinals, a team that reached the College World Series Semifinals a season ago.
The Spartans took game one of the series in a closely contested 4-3 ballgame before dominating the second game 13-4 to secure the series. The Spartans did drop the final game, 9-1.
The Spartans received a solid outing from sophomore pitcher Aidan Donovan, who took to the mound on Friday in the season opener and tossed five innings, giving up three hits, a single earned run and striking out three batters. The Longhorns’ batting lineup will have to gear up to face Donovan at some point in the series.
At the plate, Michigan State received a big contribution from senior infielder Randy Seymour, who started all three games against Louisville and recorded a .385 batting average, five hits on 13 at-bats and six RBIs, along with a pair of home runs.
At the helm for the Spartans is head coach Jake Boss Jr., who enters his 18th season as the head man for the green and white. In his 17 seasons with Michigan State, Boss has tallied a 468–408 record, and those wins make him just the third Michigan State head coach to reach 400 wins with the program.
Boss spoke of the challenge ahead for the Spartans.
“We leave early Thursday morning to go down to Austin, Texas, to take on the Longhorns, who are an extremely good program,” Boss said. “It should be a fun atmosphere down there too, so it’ll be a good challenge.”