After earning the No. 6 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament, Texas baseball welcomes UC Santa Barbara, Tarleton State and Holy Cross to UFCU Disch-Falk Field this weekend for the Austin Regional. Texas (40-13) and Holy Cross (25-28) are set to meet at noon Friday for the regional opener, while UC Santa Barbara (38-18) and Tarleton State’s (37-19) first game in this double-elimination competition will take place at 5 p.m.
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Want to know more about the Austin Regional? That’s as easy as A-B-C.
The Alabama bull pen watch the sixth inning of the second game in a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, April 18, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Austin Regional preview
Texas Longhorns outfielder Aiden Robbins (43) throws his bat after a walk during the game against Missouri at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Thursday, May. 14, 2026 in Austin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
A is for Austin
According to Texas, this will be the 39th regional hosted by the Longhorns. Holy Cross has never played a game on the Texas campus and UC Santa Barbara made its most recent visit to Austin in 2013. Tarleton State traveled to Austin on March 17 and upset Texas by a 6-1 score.
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B is for base on balls
Texas ranks eighth nationally in drawn walks. Fifteen Longhorns have combined for 329 walks. Carson Tinney’s 45 walks lead the team, and three lineup mainstays — Anthony Pack Jr. (39 to 33), Ethan Mendoza (38-31) and Adrian Rodriguez (29-28) — have more walks than strikeouts.
C is for Crusaders
Joining South Dakota State (24-31) and Milwaukee (25-31), Holy Cross is one of three schools in the NCAA’s 64-team field with a losing record. The Crusaders won four of their 25 games this season in the Patriot League Tournament.
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Texas Longhorns infielder Adrian Rodriguez (24) dives for the ball in the sixth inning as the Texas Longhorns play their first game of a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide, April 17, 2026.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
D is for defense
Texas, UC Santa Barbara, Tarleton State and Holy Cross respectively rank 18th, 95th, 156th and 279th among the 304 Division I teams in fielding percentage. Tarleton State shortstop Ike Shirey made the cut on his conference’s all-defensive team.
E is for Egrie
This season, Holy Cross outfielder CJ Egrie was honored as the Patriot League’s player of the year. A senior, Egrie is hitting .338 with 48 runs scored. UT Martin’s Terence Grines is the only Division I player with more steals this season than Egrie, who has swiped 46 bases.
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F is for freshmen
The SEC freshman of the year, Anthony Pack Jr. has produced a .353 batting average while hitting in the heart of the Texas order. But he isn’t the only freshman who’s starring for the Longhorns. Sam Cozart is 6-0 with a 1.59 ERA, and seven of his eight saves were earned against SEC teams.
G is for Gauchos
On April 14, UC Santa Barbara snapped UCLA’s 27-game winning streak with a midweek win in Los Angeles. That 4-0 win was one of six losses handed this season to UCLA, which is the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
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Texas Longhorns catcher Carson Tinney (8) hits a grand slam to put the Longhorns ahead in the eighth inning as the Texas Longhorns take on the UTSA Roadrunners at Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Texas won the game 11-8.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
H is for homers
The leading home run hitters for each team are Texas catcher Carson Tinney (20), UC Santa Barbara catcher Nate Vargas (11), Tarleton State utility player Rayner Heinrich (12) and Holy Cross outfielder Gianni Royer (six).
I is for innings
Holy Cross pitcher Jaden Wywoda has thrown 93⅓ innings. The senior right-hander has been credited with a nation-leading five complete games even though just one of those wire-to-wire performances lasted nine innings (Wywoda also pitched nine innings in a 4-2 win over Lafayette on May 2 that was decided in the 13th inning).
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J is for Jackson
UC Santa Barbara junior pitcher Jackson Flora is 11-0 with a 1.05 ERA, 0.88 WHIP and 124 strikeouts over 94⅓ innings. Flora is rated by ESPN, Perfect Game and MLB.com as the No. 4 prospect in the 2026 draft class. Over 11 innings this season against Southern Miss and Oregon teams that are hosting regionals this weekend, Flora allowed a total of five hits.
K is for Ks
Dylan Volantis and Ruger Riojas became the first Texas teammates to record 100 strikeouts in the same season since Taylor Jungman and Cole Green in 2011. As a team, the Longhorns are 17 strikeouts shy of the school’s single-season record of 618 that was set in 1985.
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Texas Longhorns pitcher Luke Harrison (53) throws a pitch during the NCAA D1 Baseball Tournament Regional against UTSA at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Saturday, May 31, 2025 in Austin, Texas.
Aaron E. Martinez/American Statesman
L is for Longhorns
Offensively, Texas has blended speed with power this season. The Longhorns have hit 87 homers and stolen 102 bases. This marks just the second time since 1970 that Texas has had 80 homers and 80 steals in the same season, and the Longhorns last accomplished that feat in 2010.
M is for Moreland
ESPN is assigning Roy Philpott and Keith Moreland to the broadcast booth for the Austin Regional. Moreland was a star infielder on UT’s 1975 national championship team. Friday’ s Holy Cross-Texas game will be televised on the SEC Network while ESPN+ will air the Tarleton State-UC Santa Barbara contest.
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N is for neutral
UC Santa Barbara is 1-2 in neutral-site games while Tarleton State is 4-3. Holy Cross has played 37 times outside of its home ballpark, but none of those games have been held at a neutral location.
O is for Omaha
Three Austin regional teams have made it to the College World Series in their histories. No team has made more CWS appearances than 38-time participant Texas, and this is the 10-year anniversary of UC Santa Barbara’s lone trip to Omaha in 2016. Holy Cross hasn’t been to the CWS since 1963, but its run to a national title in 1952 included a 2-1 win over Texas in Omaha.
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P is for Patriot League
Holy Cross is the Patriot League’s lone representative in the NCAA Tournament. Texas is one of 12 SEC teams in the field, UC Santa Barbara is one of two Big West teams that reached the postseason while the WAC sent just Tarleton State to the regionals.
Q is for qualified
Texas and UC Santa Barbara qualified for the NCAA Tournament with at-large bids. Holy Cross and Tarleton State qualified by winning their conference tournaments.
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Rouse second baseman Rayner Heinrich makes a play as Jacob Soliz provides backup Saturday in Game 2 of the Region IV-5A championship series at Jourdanton High School. Rouse won 8-0 to sweep the series and qualify for state.
Sonny Zepeda/Special to American-Statesman
R is for Rayner
Back in March, Tarleton State’s Rayner Heinrich scored three times at Disch-Falk in what was somewhat of a homecoming for the Georgetown native and all-WAC honoree. Heinrich’s older sister, Reilly, played volleyball at Texas from 2020-23 and won two national titles with the Longhorns. His father, Steve, lettered with the UT baseball team from 1993-94.
S is for Sacramento State
Tarleton State is coming off a 21-11 win over Sacramento State in the WAC championship game. Those 21 runs were the most scored in a game this season by any team in the Austin Regional.
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T is for Texans
Tarleton State is making its Division I NCAA Tournament debut. The Texans raised to the Division I ranks ahead of the 2021 season.
The Texas Longhorns take on the UTSA Roadrunners at Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Texas won the game 11-8.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
U if for UFCU Disch-Falk Field
The Austin Regional will be held at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The 51-year-old field with a FieldTurf playing surface has listed dimensions of 340 feet to left field, 325 feet to right field and 400 feet to the deepest part of the ballpark.
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V is for Volantis
Texas sophomore pitcher Dylan Volantis is an all-conference honoree who boasts a 2.00 ERA over 14 appearances and 13 starts. The ace of UT’s 2021 pitching staff, Pete Hansen is the last Longhorns pitcher to record an ERA of 2.00 or lower while also starting at least 10 games.
W is for wins
Having won 527 games over 15 seasons, UC Santa Barbara coach Andrew Checketts is his program’s all-time leader in that category. Ed Kahovec has won 130 games over seven seasons with Holy Cross, Fuller Smith has won 93 games over three seasons with Tarleton State and Jim Schlossnagle has won 84 games over two seasons with Texas.
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X is for Xavier
UC Santa Barbara infielder Xavier Esquer’s father, David, is the head coach at Stanford who coached Texas infielder Temo Becerra for four years. Esquer has started 41 times this season and is hitting .232.
Texas Longhorns outfielder Aiden Robbins (43) celebrates scoring in the eighth inning as the Texas Longhorns take on the UTSA Roadrunners at Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Tuesday, May 5, 2026. Texas won the game 11-8.
Sara Diggins/Austin American-Statesman
Y is for Yardley
The SEC newcomer of the year, Texas outfielder Aiden Robbins hails from Yardley, Pa. After spending two seasons at Seton Hall, Robbins is hitting .341 with 19 homers, 53 RBIs and 55 runs scored. He will make his NCAA Tournament debut on Friday.
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Z is for zero
Texas and UC Santa Barbara have each thrown four shutouts. Holy Cross has held an opponent without a run in two different games while Tarleton State recorded its lone shutout against Sacramento State on May 21.