OMAHA, Neb. \u2013 The first inning couldn\u2019t have gone much worse for Texas starter Dylan Volantis in the Longhorns\u2019 7-1 loss to Georgia Saturday night.<\/p>\n
The good? Volantis recorded two strikeouts. The bad? Neither of the two strikeouts retired batters. The ugly? Volantis threw 42 pitches to 10 batters.<\/p>\n
After starting with an eight-pitch walk to Georgia leadoff man Tre Phelps, Rylan Lujo cashed in the free pass when he hit a one-out homer off the left field foul pole. Then a dropped third strike and a throwing error by catcher Carson Tinney on the attempted putout at first allowed Mike O\u2019Shaughnessy to get on. A single by Kenny Ishikawa gave the Bulldogs\u00a0 runners on first and second with no outs.<\/p>\n
A fly out by No. 6 hitter Ryan Wynn was the second out, but the real trouble \u2014 most of which wasn\u2019t Volantis\u2019 fault \u2014 started when Volantis hit Brennan Hudson to load the bases. Kolby Branch swung and missed at strike three, but Tinney couldn\u2019t corral the ball, and the wild pitch was compounded by a throwing error when Tinney, forced to make the play in a rush, sent the throw to first went into the outfield, allowing two runs to score. Suddenly it was 4-0 Georgia early.<\/p>\n
But Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle didn\u2019t go to the bullpen. Despite the high pitch count, he stayed with his starter, who had kept bringing a bulldog mentality to the mound against the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened in the first, I told myself, you know, got to give the team a chance to win,\u201d Volantis said after the game. \u201cWent out there, kept battling no matter what. I didn\u2019t care if it was a 0-0 ball game, in my head, no matter what the score is, I just go out there compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
And compete he did, throwing 5 1\/3 more innings and using just 69 pitches to do it. With more baseball to be played in Omaha before the national championship is won, Schlossnagle sticking with Volantis after a 42-pitch opening frame could pay dividends down the road. Because Volantis stayed in the game, the Longhorns only had to use two relievers. Brett Crossland threw 2\/3 of an inning, and Michael Winter threw the eighth.<\/p>\n
With a day of rest, both should be available if needed for Monday\u2019s elimination game against Alabama, giving Schlossnagle full availability from his bullpen.<\/p>\n
But more importantly, by not pulling Volantis when he ran into trouble early, Schlossnagle avoided burning more arms in his bullpen, which, come Monday, where each win staves off elimination and buys Texas another day in Omaha he could need, and Texas needs to win four straight to make it to the championship series. They\u2019ll need the bullpen to be available to do it.<\/p>\n
Sure, their backs are against the wall, but to Schlossnagle, the situation isn\u2019t dire at all.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s a double-elinination. It\u2019s not the SEC tournament, thank goodness. It is the College World Series tournament, so we get a day off. Ruger [Riojas]\u2019s pitching,\u201d Schlossnagle said. \u201cI know we\u2019ll face, I\u2019m guessing, Zane Adams probably for Alabama. He\u2019s a good pitcher. He beat us earlier in the year. He\u2019s from Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unlike Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunn, the Longhorns\u2019 pets heads are not falling off.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, I mean, it\u2019s not \u2014 I mean, we\u2019re not going to die, at least\u00a0I don\u2019t think,\u201d Schlossnagle said to guffaws from the media.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate to lose the game, but dire is a little deep there. \u2026 Dire. It\u2019s baseball game. We\u2019ll be alright.\u201d<\/p>\n
Photos: Texas pitcher Dylan Volantis (99) throws during an NCAA baseball College World Series game against Georgia, Saturday, June 13, 2026 in Omaha, Neb. Georgia won 7-1. (AP Photo\/Vera Nieuwenhuis)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OMAHA, Neb. \u2013 The first inning couldn\u2019t have gone much worse for Texas starter Dylan Volantis in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":335795,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-335794","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\/335794","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=335794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/335795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=335794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=335794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=335794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}