{"id":323158,"date":"2026-06-04T22:23:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:23:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/323158\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T22:23:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T22:23:09","slug":"volantis-cozart-named-finalists-for-national-pitching-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/323158\/","title":{"rendered":"Volantis, Cozart named finalists for national pitching awards"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN (KXAN) \u2014 Dylan Volantis and Sam Cozart have been the bookends of an outstanding Texas pitching staff this season, and organizations that hand out postseason awards recognize that.<\/p>\n

Volantis was named a finalist for National Pitcher of the Year by the College Baseball Foundation on Thursday, earning the distinction for the second consecutive season. He had the honor last season as a relief pitcher.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Texas, Oregon to clash in Austin Super Regional after chaotic opening round\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

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AUSTIN, TX \u2013 FEBRUARY 22: Pitcher Dylan Volantis #99 of the Texas Longhorns pitches the ball during the college baseball game between Texas Longhorns and Michigan State Spartans on February 22, 2026, at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, TX. (Photo by David Buono\/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The sophomore made the switch from the bullpen to the starting role seamlessly, compiling the third-best ERA in Division I at 1.94 with the second-best FIP at 1.75. FIP stands for “fielding independent pitching” and only takes into account what pitchers have the most control over \u2014 strikeouts, walks, hit batsmen and home runs.<\/p>\n

Volantis has struck out 116 batters in 83.1 innings, and is 9-1 in 14 starts. He leads the Southeastern Conference in FIP, ERA, WHIP (0.94) and batting average against (.181).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Loyalty to Texas baseball runs deep for longtime fan Pablo Reyes\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

He joins Mason Edwards (Southern California), Jackson Flora (UC Santa Barbara), Aidan King (Florida) and Maxx Yehl (West Virginia) as finalists for the honor.<\/p>\n

Cozart is among 14 finalists for Stopper of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association<\/a>. Volantis was a finalist for the award last season.<\/p>\n

The freshman closer leads the country in WHI at 0.72 and batting average against at .137, and he’s second in Division I in ERA at 1.72. The 6-foot-6, 260-pounder has eight saves with a 6-0 record. He’s also on the short list for National Freshman of the Year by Baseball America.<\/p>\n

He’s the fifth Longhorn to be a finalist for the award, joining J. Brent Cox in 2005, Chance Ruffin in 2010, Corey Knebel in 2011 and Volantis last year.<\/p>\n

Texas (43-13) hosts Oregon (43-16) in the super regionals starting at 7 p.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KXAN Austin.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN (KXAN) \u2014 Dylan Volantis and Sam Cozart have been the bookends of an outstanding Texas pitching staff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,115582,67531,115583,770,84117,9969,27,537],"class_list":["post-323158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-college-baseball-foundation","tag-dylan-volantis","tag-fip","tag-michigan-state-spartans","tag-sam-cozart","tag-southeastern-conference","tag-texas","tag-texas-longhorns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323158","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=323158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}