It was another frankly embarrassing defeat added to the Longhorns\u2019 resume.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An all-out poor performance from the Longhorns![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kn8ppfygn7ah1dtgjq.jpg\" "\\"South")
<\/p>\n
South Carolina sophomore Jake McCoy reacts after striking out Clemson sophomore Collin Priest. | Ken Ruinard \/ staff \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Yes, it is early in the season. And yes, this could be an overreaction from limited results. But at this point, it\u2019s at least slightly concerning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Texas falls to 24-5 on the season. Two of those losses came in walk-off fashion against very good SEC opponents.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other three, not so much.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It started with Tarleton State, when the Texans held Texas to its lowest offensive output of the season<\/a>. Then came a loss to a 13-14 Houston<\/a> team sitting at the bottom of the Big 12. And now, South Carolina \u2014 a team that entered the night 2-8 in conference play \u2014 delivers the most lopsided result of the bunch.<\/p>\n Much of the concern had been tied to midweek games, where Texas had dropped back-to-back contests before rebounding against Texas State.<\/a><\/p>\n But South Carolina was not a Tuesday matchup. It was an SEC opener \u2014 and it looked just the same.\u00a0<\/p>\n South Carolina, a team hitting just .260 with a sub-.450 slugging percentage entering the night, had no trouble solving Texas pitching.<\/p>\n Ruger Riojas, arguably Texas\u2019 best starter this season, looked utterly mortal. The right-hander allowed eight hits and six earned runs over three innings \u2014 a stunning line considering he had surrendered just seven earned runs across his first 39 2\/3 innings this season.<\/p>\n Five of those runs came in a disastrous second inning, fueled by a string of extra-base hits and well-placed contact. Head coach Jim Schlossnagle suggested midgame that Riojas may have been tipping his pitches, as South Carolina consistently jumped on breaking balls.<\/p>\n But whatever the reason, it was a totally uncharacteristic performance for the Longhorns\u2019 ace.\u00a0<\/p>\n The bats weren\u2019t great either. Aiden Robbins\u2019 solo home run \u2014 his 11th of the season \u2014 accounted for Texas\u2019 only run. The Longhorns struck out 12 times, managed just six hits and left nine runners on base. Over the final six innings, the offense went completely silent, continuing a recent trend of late-game stagnation.<\/p>\n Oh, and that reshuffled defense? Pretty rough as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n A softly hit ground ball in the second inning slipped through the middle with Temo Becerra shifted deep in the hole, plating a run and extending the inning. The single plated the second South Carolina run, and set the stage for a very rough series of events.\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas just had absolutely nothing in the tank against a team they were expected to totally sweep.\u00a0<\/p>\n But now the question is, why? A lapse of focus? A byproduct or overconfidence, believing their opponents hold no match? Or maybe just the randomness that defines baseball?<\/p>\n The honest answer is probably somewhere in between. Games like this happen, and they don\u2019t usually determine the demise of a team\u2019s season.\u00a0<\/p>\n But repeated games like this start to say something.\u00a0<\/p>\n The expectation is that Texas responds. It has all season. After similar stumbles, the Longhorns have bounced back to win series against teams like Ole Miss and Auburn.<\/p>\n That\u2019s still very much on the table.<\/p>\n But tonight should have never happened in the first place. But when the losses start to follow a pattern \u2014 especially against teams you\u2019re expected to beat \u2014 those questions start to become much more urgent. <\/p>\n Sign up to\u00a0our free newsletter<\/a>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0X<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0for the latest news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another day, another dropped game to a mid-level opponent for Texas.\u00a0 South Carolina \u2014 the worst team in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":233512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-233511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233511","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=233511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}