{"id":245011,"date":"2026-04-11T11:39:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245011\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T11:39:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:39:10","slug":"aggies-scored-a-1st-round-knockdown-but-texas-baseball-is-far-from-out-golden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/245011\/","title":{"rendered":"Aggies scored a 1st-round knockdown but Texas baseball is far from out | Golden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday was the first round of a heavyweight fight and Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle<\/a> must have felt like Rocky walking into a Moscow ring to face Ivan Drago.<\/p>\n

Texas A&M\u2019s Blue Bell Park was anything but sweet and delicious in his first game there since leaving his College Station<\/a> post to take the job at Texas less than two days after finishing as the College World Series runner-up two summers ago.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas A&M fans heckle Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle during the Lone Star Showdown at Blue Bell Park on Friday, April 10, 2026 in College Station, Texas. (Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman)<\/p>\n

Schlossnagle has done a great job of keeping this thing about baseball over the last couple of seasons and leaving the exterior stuff to people like yours truly but the spectacle was something to behold.<\/p>\n

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MORE CED: How a natty eluded Vic Schaefer, Madison Booker and Texas basketball<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s unlike any baseball environment on Earth with the chants emanating from the stands and the bubbles flying around.<\/p>\n

Texas handled itself well but the bloodthirsty hosts got what they wanted and that was Schloss\u2019 head on a figurative platter.<\/p>\n

His No. 2 Texas Longhorns \u00a0suffered a 9-8 knockdown<\/a> in the opening round but this slugfest promises to go the distance.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ced\u2019s Corner<\/p>\n

Sign up for Cedric Golden\u2019s newsletter <\/a>for hot takes and expert analysis each Tuesday on Texas Longhorns football and beyond. It’s called Ced\u2019s Corner, from the mind of the American-Statesman\u2019s resident sports columnist, the 2025 NSMA Texas Sportswriter of the Year.<\/p>\n

The loss reads just like it happened \u2014\u00a0 q tightly contested back-and-forth volley of body blows that came down to the first team that blinked at crunch time.<\/p>\n

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It happened to be the Horns, whose bullpen imploded in a murderous sixth inning that was low-lighted by five walks and the Aggies scoring three runs to take the lead for good without getting a hit. Starter Ruger Riojas had his second straight rough outing \u2014 he gave up five earned runs in five innings and was tagged with four extra base hits \u2014 and the guys behind him weren\u2019t able to provide the pick-me-up.<\/p>\n

The coaching staff keeps track of free passes and by their scoring system, the Horns were minus-17 in the fourth straight one-run game these teams have played dating back to Texas\u2019 sweep in Austin last season.<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle takes pitcher Ruger Riojas (13) out of the game against Ole Miss at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Friday, March 13, 2026 in Austin. (Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman)<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not going to win games that way,\u201d he said. \u201cI was real proud of the way that the guys competed at home plate but A&M did a much better job of controlling the strike zone as an offense. So kudos to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

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It didn\u2019t help that nature intervened in the second inning when Texas right fielder Jayden Duplantier lost sight of Boston Kellner\u2019s pop fly in the twilight skies above Blue Bell. It fell in for a leadoff triple, much to the chagrin of the head coach who was doing a dugout interview with the SEC Network broadcast. Schloss has a Gregg Popovich like hatred of in-game interviews and bad things seem to happen when he\u2019s on camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdd this one to the list, guys,\u201d he grumbled to Kyle Peterson and Co.<\/p>\n

The good news is the 27-6\u00a0 Horns, despite a fourth Game 1 loss in five SEC series, displayed the clutch gene offensively and if not for an eighth-inning throwing error on third baseman Casey Borba, who struck out four times in an 0-for-5 nightmare after arriving town on a offensive tear, the Horns had every chance to steal this one, especially after Aiden Robbins and Anthony Pack homered in the ninth to cut the lead to one.<\/p>\n

The error, which came on a tough chance, gave the No. 18 Aggies a three-run cushion and just enough insurance to get it done.<\/p>\n

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The conversations in the visitor\u2019s clubhouse after the game were productive ones. The Horns can win this series and they know it. Lefty Luke Harrison<\/a> has been a horse as the Saturday starter and Texas\u2019 20-3 record in his 23 career starts should provide great confidence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just kind of came to an agreement that we just got to keep playing,\u201d said Robbins. \u201cI ride or die with these guys, and that was (Schlossnagle\u2019s) message. I don’t think there’s anything more to it. We got to play our style of baseball, and at the end of the day, we’ll come out as winners.\u201d<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t wait for Round 2.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday was the first round of a heavyweight fight and Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle must have felt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[93512,93513,10732,67002,47365,66693,27,3042,29,537,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-245011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-baseball-coach","9":"tag-blue-bell-park","10":"tag-college-station","11":"tag-college-world-series","12":"tag-jim-schlossnagle","13":"tag-ruger-riojas","14":"tag-texas","15":"tag-texas-am","16":"tag-texas-headlines","17":"tag-texas-longhorns","18":"tag-texas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245011","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=245011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}