Texas baseball: Dylan Volantis strikes out 11 to beat Missouri

AUSTIN — Dylan Volantis struck out 11 batters and allowed only two hits over seven innings, and Casey Borba continued his late-season revival with a two-run home run to give sixth-ranked Texas a 6-3 win over Missouri Thursday night at Disch-Falk Field.

Volantis extended his mastery over SEC batters with an 8-1 record and lowered his ERA to a conference-leading 2.05 in a race with Florida’s Aidan King for SEC Pitcher of the Year honors. King has a 2.50 ERA.

But the Tigers rallied with two runs off four hits in the eighth off Haiden Leffew before Brett Crossland ended the threat and Sam Cozart struck out the side in the ninth for his eighth save, seventh in league play. Texas struck out out 14 batters.

Borba has snapped out of his long slump and has four home runs over a span of just six at-bats between this game and the Tennessee series. That also marked his fifth home run in nine games and his 16th this season. Carson Tinney added a 422-foot solo shot to center field for his 18th homer of the year.

Texas improved to 38-12 and 17-10 in league place and moved into second place in the SEC after Texas A&M lost to Mississippi State. Missouri fell to 23-28 and 6-22 in conference play.

The Longhorns try to win their eighth series in 10 tries with a 6:30 game Friday night.

The game started ominously enough when Missouri leadoff batter Jase Woita hammered the Longhorns ace’s fourth pitch of the game over the right-field wall for a 1-0 lead. And that’s all the SEC’s last-place team got.

Despite the shaky beginning, the sophomore left-hander struck out six of the next seven Tigers batters and struck out 10 or more for the fourth time in his last five starts.

Volantis gave up only a second-inning leadoff single to Donovan Jordan, walked one and allowed nothing after. He retired the last eight batters he faced before giving way to Haiden Leffew to start the eighth.

Texas had very little production off Missouri’s pitchers, managing just four hits and two runs on sacrifice flies by Aiden Robbins and Ethan Mendoza until Borba’s fireworks.