{"id":163156,"date":"2026-02-13T13:05:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/163156\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T13:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T13:05:19","slug":"texas-baseball-turns-to-ruger-riojas-as-longhorns-friday-starter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/163156\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas baseball turns to Ruger Riojas as Longhorns’ Friday starter"},"content":{"rendered":"

As it enters the 2026 season, the Texas baseball<\/a> team’s pitching staff has an identity. What that identity is, however, may depend on who you ask.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

“We’re hired hitmen,” senior Ruger Riojas suggested Wednesday.<\/p>\n

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“We’re all just a bunch of savage out-getters,” junior Thomas Burns countered.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns pitcher Ruger Rojas (13) smiles before being taken out of the NCAA D1 Baseball Tournament Regional against Kansas State at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Sunday, June 1, 2025 in Austin, Texas.<\/p>\n

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

Whether the Texas pitchers are competing for kills or outs, Riojas will get the first chance to record one this season. Earlier this week, Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle announced Riojas will be the team’s season-opening starter Friday against\u00a0UC Davis at UFCU Disch-Falk Field<\/a>.<\/p>\n

NO. 3 TEXAS VS. UC DAVIS<\/p>\n

When\/where:\u00a06:30 p.m. Friday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.<\/p>\n

TV\/radio:\u00a0SEC Network+; 1300 AM.<\/p>\n

Riojas won a team-high nine games last season while posting a 5.91 ERA and 62 strikeouts over 18 appearances and 69 innings. The UTSA transfer replaced an injured Jared Spencer as the Longhorns’ Friday starter in April and then starred during a start against Texas A&M. A late-spring swoon spoiled his stat line, although Riojas did enough in an NCAA Tournament elimination game to keep the Longhorns’ season alive.<\/p>\n

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MORE: Tommy Nicholson on UC Davis, Augie Garrido and coaching against Texas baseball<\/a><\/p>\n

One year later, Schlossnagle said a lot of things factored into his decision to tab Riojas as the Friday starter. Riojas got stronger over the offseason, Schlossnagle noted, and the coach thinks\u00a0last season’s experience is an asset. Schlossnagle also assessed that the way Riojas has been pitching in the leadup to the season has been “outstanding.”<\/p>\n

“He’s earned it,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s more about a statement of him than really anybody else.”<\/p>\n

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Veteran left-hander Luke Harrison, who went 5-1 with a 3.06 ERA in 2025<\/a>, will retain his role as the Saturday starter in the UC Davis series. The Longhorns then expect to close out the weekend with\u00a0promising sophomore Dylan\u00a0Volantis<\/a>, who earned All-American honors as a reliever.<\/p>\n

“We’ll give all of them some rope in the first three to four weeks to see how they do,” said Schlossnagle, noting that sophomore Jason Flores and freshman Sam Cozart also could factor into the weekend rotation at some point.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns pitcher Ruger Riojas (13) steps up to pitch during the Lone Star Showdown against Texas A&M at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Friday, April 25, 2025.<\/p>\n

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

What happened to Ruger Riojas last year?<\/p>\n

While being used as both a reliever and starter, Riojas’ debut season at Texas got off to a good start. He had a breakout Sunday start in March against eventual national champion LSU. He followed that up with a 10-strikeout performance at Missouri and then solid showings against Georgia and Kentucky.<\/p>\n

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After Spencer’s season-ending shoulder injury<\/a> forced Texas to reconfigure its weekend rotation, Riojas started pitching on Fridays. In his first Friday start,\u00a0Riojas threw 5\u2154 innings of five-hit baseball<\/a> in an emotional victory over a Texas A&M team that was facing Schlossnagle for the first time since he had left College Station for Austin only a few months beforehand.<\/p>\n

MORE: Jim Schlossnagle is asking Texas baseball offense to change in 2026. Here’s how<\/a><\/p>\n

Then things fell apart for the Wimberley product.<\/p>\n

Riojas failed to get out of the fourth inning in any of his next three starts, and he recorded just one out during a disastrous outing against Florida. He was the pitcher of record in Texas’\u00a015-8 win over Kansas State in the NCAA Tournament<\/a>, but he still allowed seven earned runs over that 7\u2153-inning appearance. Over the final four starts of the season, Riojas was 1-2 with a 15.34 ERA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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This week, Riojas reflected on how last season ended. He shared that he lost about 20 pounds during a late-season bout with the flu and bronchitis. He didn’t have a problem with the way he pitched against Arkansas, but his struggles against Florida and Oklahoma admittedly impacted the self-confidence of the mustachioed\u00a0right-hander who warms up to Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.” He described the Florida loss \u2014 in which he allowed three hits, four walks and six earned runs over just a third of an inning<\/a> \u2014 as sobering and his “rock-bottom moment in baseball.”<\/p>\n

“It was a learning experience,” Riojas said. “It’s the best thing that could have happened for me, hitting rock bottom. Being able to adapt through that has really been a good learning lesson for me.”<\/p>\n

Riojas has gained some muscle since he was last seen in a Texas uniform and will enter this season at 205 pounds (he was listed at 192 for the 2025 season). Riojas said he has added some velocity to his pitches, and that he has eight pitches to work with this season since he throws out of different arm slots.<\/p>\n

“He’s got a great combination of humility and confidence,” Schlossnagle said. “He has the humility to recognize, or be self-aware enough to know that there are things he has to get better at and he goes to work on them, like he did all summer with his body and in the fall with his pitches with (pitching coach Max Weiner). But he still has the confidence to know that one game or one stretch doesn’t define his career and that he’s also getting better.”<\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns pitcher Ruger Riojas (13) throws a pitch during the Lone Star Showdown against Texas A&M at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Friday, April 25, 2025.<\/p>\n

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

Friday starters have traditionally starred for Texas<\/p>\n

Being Friday’s opening starter at Texas holds a certain amount of gravitas. Going back to 2010, all 12 Longhorns pitcher who have started the first game of the season eventually became MLB draft picks. That recent bunch includes MLB pitchers\u00a0Taylor Jungmann<\/a>, Hoby Milner, Bryce Elder and Ty Madden and 2023 Big 12 pitcher of the year Lucas Gordon.<\/p>\n

“(Pitching on Friday) was an ultimate goal for any pitcher growing up and going to college, having it be at Texas was just the cherry on top,” former Friday starter Nolan Kingham once told the American-Statesman. “Texas was my dream school and I wanted to be the guy with the ball on Friday night.”<\/p>\n

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MORE: Longhorns’ former Friday starters discuss premier pitching spot<\/a><\/p>\n

Riojas will look to carry on UT’s Friday tradition against a UC Davis team picked to finish eighth in the Big West. Coming off a 44-14 season that came to an abrupt end in the NCAA regionals, Texas enters this spring as the No. 3 team in the D1Baseball poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As it enters the 2026 season, the Texas baseball team’s pitching staff has an identity. What that identity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2845,47365,66693,27,29,537,20340,28,66694,60844],"class_list":{"0":"post-163156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-college-baseball","9":"tag-jim-schlossnagle","10":"tag-ruger-riojas","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-longhorns","14":"tag-texas-longhorns-baseball","15":"tag-texas-news","16":"tag-uc-davis","17":"tag-ufcu-disch-falk-field"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163156","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=163156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}