{"id":180015,"date":"2026-02-25T18:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/180015\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:52:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:52:11","slug":"10-run-mercy-rule-an-established-preference-for-texas-baseball-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/180015\/","title":{"rendered":"10-run mercy rule an established preference for Texas baseball games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this month,\u00a0Ethan\u00a0Mendoza hit a walk-off homer for the Texas baseball<\/a> team. Kind of.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Mendoza\u2019s three-run homer\u00a0Feb. 13 ended the Longhorns\u2019 season opener against UC Davis. But the ball that sailed over the left-field fence at UFCU Disch-Falk Field didn\u2019t break an extra-inning tie or complete a ninth-inning comeback. It simply triggered a run rule in the seventh inning of a 12-2 win<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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“I just count it as a homer,” Mendoza later said. “The walk-off run-rule, it’s a little different thing. It doesn’t feel as cool as a normal walk-off. But a win’s a win, so it doesn’t really matter to me what it looks like.”<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Texas Longhorns celebrate a win over the UTRGV Vaqueros at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Feb. 24, 2026. Texas won 14-0 by run-rule after the seventh inning.<\/p>\n

Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n

Off to an 8-0 start this season, No. 3 Texas has run-ruled three of its opponents. In college baseball, the mercy rule ends a game when a team is leading by 10 runs in the seventh or eighth inning and its opponent has had its chance to bat in that frame.<\/p>\n

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\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle meets with officials ahead of the game against Michigan State at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Friday, Feb. 20, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

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

Texas recorded its most-recent run-ruled rout in Tuesday\u2019s 14-0 win at home over UTRGV<\/a>. In that case, UT had scored two touchdowns by the end of the sixth inning and closed out the game by retiring the Vaqueros in the top of the seventh. Texas ended its season-opening victory against UC Davis and its 14-4 win over Lamar\u00a0on Feb. 17\u00a0by taking a 10-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning.<\/p>\n

This season, Texas is sort of playing by a new set of (run) rules<\/p>\n

The concept of a run rule is not new. But this marks the third straight season that Texas is playing under different run-rule guidelines.<\/p>\n

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When Texas was a member of the Big 12, a mercy rule was only used in the finales of conference series while nonconference games were left to the discretion of the teams\u2019 coaches. Texas joined the SEC last season, and that league already had a mandatory mercy rule for all its conference games and a suggestion that\u00a0nonconference games be treated the same.<\/p>\n

More: Kody Clemens, Ivan Melendez among the ex-Texas baseball stars to watch in spring training<\/a><\/p>\n

Texas coach Jim\u00a0Schlossnagle said that this season, the SEC\u2019s guidance on using a mercy rule in nonconference games is less of a suggestion and more of an unofficial rule. Unless an opposing coach objects beforehand, a mercy rule will be in effect for all of UT\u2019s contests.<\/p>\n

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“That’s the recommendation from our conference,” Schlossnagle said. “It was in play last year, it’s more kind of enforced this year.”<\/p>\n

Last season, six of the Longhorns’ games ended early because of a run rule. Four\u00a0of those games were nonconference contests.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle talks UC Davis head coach Tommy Nicholson ahead of the game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Friday, Feb. 13, 2026 in Austin.<\/p>\n

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

Baseball coaches believe that run\u00a0rule has its pros and cons<\/p>\n

Is the run rule a good thing for baseball? That depends on who you ask.<\/p>\n

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One side of the argument focuses on injury prevention especially since college baseball teams will soon be forced to play with smaller rosters. Lopsided contests are also not entertaining to watch.<\/p>\n

More: How Jim Schlossnagle, Troy Tulowitzki aim to change Texas baseball’s offense in 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

But former Texas coach David Pierce<\/a> was always hesitant to agree to run-rule guidelines in\u00a0nonconference games because he felt that his non-starters could benefit from playing at the end of blowouts. Ahead of last week’s Michigan State series, Schlossnagle expressed regret that freshmen Brett Crossland and Brody Walls and transfer Haiden Leffew had not yet pitched in a real-game situation since two of the Longhorns’ four games to that point had been shortened.<\/p>\n

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“You can argue both sides,” Schlossnagle said. “There’s conversation in our coaching community about what do we do moving forward.\u00a0Do you make it 10 runs? Do you make it 12? I think what everybody wants to avoid is the game that gets out of hand, the 21-4 game where everybody in the park’s just waiting for it to be over. Versus not all 10-run (games) are the same. There are 10-run games where the wind’s blowing out and the pitching is not great, and you still feel like you’re in down 10.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this month,\u00a0Ethan\u00a0Mendoza hit a walk-off homer for the Texas baseball team. Kind of. Mendoza\u2019s three-run homer\u00a0Feb. 13…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":180016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2845,47365,27,29,537,20340,28],"class_list":["post-180015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-college-baseball","tag-jim-schlossnagle","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-baseball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180015","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=180015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}