{"id":263794,"date":"2026-04-24T03:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263794\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:23:14","slug":"texas-baseball-players-coaches-receive-varying-midseason-grades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/263794\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas baseball players, coaches receive varying midseason grades"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the end of April in sight, Texas baseball<\/a> is contending for championships.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

With the No. 4 ranking in the D1Baseball poll, Texas (30-8) is considered a contender for the national championship and its first trip to Omaha since 2022. With an 11-6 showing in its conference games, the Longhorns remain in contention in an SEC race that’s currently led by No. 5 Georgia (32-10, 13-5) and No. 7 Texas A&M (31-7, 12-5).<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

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

Rain washed out Tuesday’s scheduled game against Air Force<\/a>, but the Longhorns return to the field this weekend for a three-game series at Vanderbilt (25-17, 9-9). Texas still has SEC series against Mississippi State, Tennessee and Missouri and two midweek games against Sam Houston and UTSA left on its schedule.<\/p>\n

Here are midseason grades for the Longhorns:<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns catcher Carson Tinney (8) watches his home run hit for a second before taking off to runt the bases in the first inning as the Texas Longhorns play their first game of a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide, April 17, 2026.<\/p>\n

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

Catcher: A<\/p>\n

When\/where:\u00a06 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Saturday, noon Sunday in Nashville, Tenn.<\/p>\n

TV\/radio:\u00a0SEC Network+ on Friday, SEC Network on Saturday, ESPN2 on Sunday; 1300 AM.<\/p>\n

It turns out that replacing a Buster Posey Award finalist with another Buster Posey Award finalist is a good strategy. Following a transfer from Notre Dame, Carson Tinney has soothed the loss to Rylan Galvan to the draft. Tinney is hitting .331 with 14 homers and has worked well with a pitching staff that ranks fifth nationally with its 3.41 ERA.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

First base: B<\/p>\n

Casey Borba has been good defensively after his move across the diamond from third base following the graduation of Kimble Schuessler. Borba is currently stuck in an offensive rut, though; UT’s third-leading home run hitter has gone deep just once in his last 13 games.<\/p>\n

Second base: B-<\/p>\n

After leading Texas in hitting last season, Ethan Mendoza added weight during the offseason<\/a>. So far that strategy has led to varying results. Mendoza is producing better power numbers this spring, but he’s also hitting 62 points lower than last year’s .333 average and was recently dropped in the batting order.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns infielder Adrian Rodriguez (24) throws to first base in the second inning of the second game in a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide, April 18, 2026.<\/p>\n

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

Shortstop: C<\/p>\n

Adrian Rodriguez has a .955 fielding percentage in his first year as starting shortstop, but let’s talk about those offensive stats. Despite maintaining premiere spots in the lineup, Rodriguez has 19 RBIs and no homers. How much of that is to blame on offseason surgery and the subsequent allergic reaction that he had\u00a0to the staple that was put in his hand<\/a>? Rodriguez says he’s healthy now, so only time will tell.<\/p>\n

Third base: B<\/p>\n

Temo Becerra has been a solid find at the hot corner following his transfer from Stanford, and Borba fit right back in at his old spot while Becerra replaced an injured Rodriguez for eight games this season. Texas, however, has gotten one homer out of the position since March 10.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns outfielder Aiden Robbins (43) runs to third and then home to score in the sixth inning as the Texas Longhorns play their first game of a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide, April 17, 2026.<\/p>\n

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

Outfield: A-<\/p>\n

Seton Hall transfer\u00a0Aiden Robbins has emerged as a contender for the SEC player of the year award<\/a>. Anthony Pack Jr. has established himself as one of the conference’s top freshmen. That third outfield spot, though, has been a revolving door for Texas since Jonah Williams’ season-ending injury<\/a> and nobody from the trio of Jayden Duplantier, Ashton Larson and\u00a0Dariyan Pendergrass<\/a> has seized the job.<\/p>\n

Starting pitching: A<\/p>\n

Whether he’s pitching on Sundays or Fridays, Dylan Volantis has only gotten better as a sophomore<\/a>. Ruger Riojas and Luke Harrison have also been consistent in their weekend roles. Texas has not yet established much starting pitching outside of its weekend rotation, however, which could become a problem in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\"Texas<\/p>\n

Texas Longhorns pitcher Samuel Cozart (35) throws in the seventh inning as the Texas Longhorns play their first game of a three-game series against the Alabama Crimson Tide, April 17, 2026.<\/p>\n

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

Bullpen: C<\/p>\n

The bullpen has provided plenty of highlights from freshmen Sam Cozart and Brett Crossland<\/a>. There have also been some lowlights (late-inning implosions in losses to Ole Miss, Auburn and Houston). Texas boasts depth and options in its bullpen, but consistency will be key down the stretch.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Coaching: incomplete<\/p>\n

Texas is a top-five team that remains in the hunt for an SEC title, but all of that was somewhat expected. Fair or not, Jim Schlossnagle and his staff will be judged on how this team fares in the postseason after last year’s early exit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the end of April in sight, Texas baseball is contending for championships. With the No. 4 ranking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[67089,132,134,133,63225,2845,67531,47365,2846,537,20340],"class_list":["post-263794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-adrian-rodriguez","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-carson-tinney","tag-college-baseball","tag-dylan-volantis","tag-jim-schlossnagle","tag-sec-baseball","tag-texas-longhorns","tag-texas-longhorns-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263794","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=263794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}