{"id":136900,"date":"2026-01-24T22:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/136900\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T22:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T22:19:08","slug":"ethan-mendoza-dylan-volantis-jonah-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/136900\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethan Mendoza, Dylan Volantis, Jonah Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like he did in 50 games last season, Ethan\u00a0Mendoza led off for the Texas baseball<\/a> team Friday.<\/p>\n

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Mendoza was the first Longhorn to meet with the media this week during UT’s first news conference of the year. A junior second baseman, Mendoza shared his thoughts on some of the team’s newcomers and his increased leadership responsibilities. When asked if a program that lost several key starters<\/a> is rebuilding this season, Mendoza replied that, “We don’t rebuild here.”<\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas infielder Ethan Mendoza (5) smiles between plays during the Longhorns’ game against Houston Christian, April 8, 2025 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin.<\/p>\n

Mikala Compton\/American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Mendoza\u00a0also told reporters that he put on between 15 and 20 pounds during the offseason. Wanting to get both faster and stronger, Mendoza said that he consulted with athletic\u00a0performance coach Matt Couch, worked hard in the weight room, ran more and started a meal-prep plan that featured recipes that he found on TikTok.<\/p>\n

“(My favorite was) this breakfast bowl kind of thing,” Mendoza said. “So it was, like, sausage, hash browns, cheese and I think potatoes and eggs. I just had that every morning.”<\/p>\n

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More: Where Texas Longhorns and Texas A&M Aggies rank in preseason<\/a><\/p>\n

After transferring to Texas from Arizona State, Mendoza made an immediate impact despite a shoulder injury that sidelined him for some games and limited him to designated hitter duties in others. Last season, Mendoza led Texas in batting average (.333)<\/a>, triples (four) and stolen bases (15) while scoring 53 times and driving in 35 runs. He also earned a spot on the SEC’s all-defensive team.<\/p>\n

Mendoza said after his work this offseason, the exit velocity off his bat has increased and “I just feel better, and I feel like I look better too.” The 5-foot-10 infielder reported on Friday that he is sitting at 200 pounds after playing at 183 pounds last season.<\/p>\n

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“We made\u00a0a couple jokes because (sophomore infielder Adrian Rodriguez) got skinny and\u00a0Doza gained some weight, so we said that A-Rod gave all his weight to Doza,” junior Casey Borba said while referencing Rodriguez’s 10-pound drop from last season. “(Mendoza) looks good, though. He’s ready to go.”<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/American Statesman<\/p>\n

Texas still figuring out its weekend rotation<\/p>\n

With three weeks to go before the Longhorns’ season-opening series against UC Davis, Texas coach Jim\u00a0Schlossnagle<\/a> was only willing to make one guarantee about his pitching rotation. One season after he went 5-1 with a 3.06 ERA over 15 starts, fifth-year left-hander Luke Harrison<\/a> will continue to work on the weekends.<\/p>\n

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“Luke’s for sure,” Schlossnagle said. “Barring injury, there’s nothing he can do to not be in it. Everybody else is competing for it.”<\/p>\n

More:Subscribe to the Statesman’s Texas sports newsletter<\/a><\/p>\n

Schlossnagle enters his second season with several options to start on the weekend. Aside from Harrison, Texas is looking at seniors\u00a0Ruger Riojas and Max Grubbs, sophomore Dylan\u00a0Volantis and Jason Flores and\u00a0freshmen Sam Cozart and Michael Winter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last season, Flores and Riojas combined for 15 starts. Grubbs was a weekend starter during UT’s 2024 campaign before proving to be an effective\u00a0option out of the bullpen last season for Schlossnagle and pitching coach Max Weiner. Volantis earned All-American honors as a closer in 2025 although a move to the rotation seems like the next logical step in his collegiate career<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“I’m not a starter or a closer. I’m a Longhorn,”\u00a0Volantis said Friday of his role. “Whatever the coaches need, whatever the players need, I’m there for that.”<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns outfielder Jonah Williams (55) and head coach Jim Schlossnagle celebrate a score during the NCAA D1 Baseball Tournament Regional against UTSA at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Saturday, May 31, 2025 in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Schlossnagle, Sarkisian haven’t yet set a Jonah Williams plan<\/p>\n

Schlossnagle said\u00a0that he and Texas football Steve Sarkisian<\/a> haven’t had many discussions about Jonah Williams’ workload this spring. An outfielder, Williams is also a safety on\u00a0the UT football team.<\/p>\n

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Last year, Williams focused mainly on baseball after enrolling early and joining the Longhorns as a 17-year-old freshman. Aside from attending a few meetings<\/a>, Williams did not participate in spring football drills. Schlossnagle, though, conceded that arrangement will likely change.<\/p>\n

“We’re going to sit down here in the next probably week or so and just get an idea of what they’re thinking,” Schlossnagle said. “I don’t want to put words in his mouth, but I would anticipate as Jonah becomes more of a priority on the defense in football, that they’re going to want him around more. And that’s OK, that’s part of the deal.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been through that several times with football-baseball players, and it’s actually not that tough to navigate. Number one, you’ve got to make sure you stay within the confines of the rules. … We’ll work our way through it. If anybody can handle that, Jonah can do that.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

More:Will departures set safety Jonah Williams up for more playing time?<\/a><\/p>\n

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During the 2025 season, Williams appeared in 20 games and hit .327.\u00a0He is expected to contend for playing time this spring in an outfield that lost Will Gasparino (UCLA) and Tommy Farmer IV (UC Irvine)\u00a0to the transfer portal and Max Belyeu\u00a0to the MLB draft<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Williams is not currently getting offensive reps in UT’s intrasquad games as he plays catch-up after a football season that ended\u00a0Dec. 31.<\/p>\n

“He’s probably a week away from fully being able to play in the game,”\u00a0Schlossnagle said.<\/p>\n

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Rodriguez\u00a0was the only other Longhorn to appear on\u00a0Schlossnagle’s Friday injury report. Schlossnagle reported that the starting shortstop candidate is “on track to come back from his hand surgery. He’s not swinging the bat right now, but he should be able to do that in about a week or two.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Like he did in 50 games last season, Ethan\u00a0Mendoza led off for the Texas baseball team Friday. Mendoza…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136901,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[47365,47364,27,29,537,20340,536,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-136900","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-jim-schlossnagle","9":"tag-jonah-williams","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-headlines","12":"tag-texas-longhorns","13":"tag-texas-longhorns-baseball","14":"tag-texas-longhorns-football","15":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136900\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}