Texas battles Alabama in CWS elimination game

For a sixth straight College World Series opener, the Texas Longhorns dropped into the loser’s bracket with the 7-1 defeat by the Georgia Bulldogs, setting up an elimination game on Monday against the Alabama Crimson Tide with first pitch at 1 p.m. Central on ESPN.

The hope for head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team was that a win over the Bulldogs would put the Longhorns in prime position to make the finals. Instead, it’s Georgia leading the field with 65.1-percent odds to play for the national championship and 42.3-percent odds to win it.

The odds for Texas now? Only 8.8 percent to make the finals and 5.2 percent to win it. Making the finals would require winning four straight elimination games, a challenge the Horns nearly surmounted in 2014 and 2021, falling to the eventual national champions both years. Since losing in the finals to LSU in 2009, Texas has exited Omaha after two games in 2011, 2018, and 2022.

Assessing Saturday’s disastrous, uncompetitive performance, Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle broke it into two storylines — the sensational performance by Georgia right-hander Joey Volchko in the best effort of his collegiate career, setting a personal best with 15 strikeouts in his first complete game, and the defensive mistakes by Texas.

“Number one, Volchko was awesome. He didn’t walk a guy until the ninth inning, threw an endless amount of strikes,” Schlossnagle said. “I was actually super impressed — in an era of baseball where there’s strikeouts and emotional things happen in the game — I didn’t see him once scream at our team or do anything that some kids do these days. I thought he was super professional and was outstanding.”

Schlossnagle compared Volchko’s mid-90s fastball with glove-side run to a slider and noted his previous tendency to yank two-strike pitches throughout the season. On Saturday, that didn’t happen.

“I think once he got through that first at bat and then punched out the side, he got a lot of confidence,” Schlossnagle said. “He was outstanding, and that’s what happens when you’re playing at this level against these great teams.”

To get to Volchko, who perfectly executed the game plan put together by the Georgia coaching staff, Texas right-handed batters needed to hit the ball the other way, an area in which they struggled beyond a couple well-struck outs and a single by junior designated hitter Ethan Mendoza, and the left-handed batters needed to catch the ball early before it could get in on their hands.

Only sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez was able to succeed with that plan, finishing 2-for-3 and scoring the lone run for the Horns. Freshman right fielder Anthony Pack Jr. and junior first baseman Ashton Larson both struggled against Volchko as Pack went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts as the Georgia starter was able to keep him off balance with the overhand curveball he used almost exclusively against left-handed hitters.

The Longhorns also made critical mistakes behind sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis in committing three errors. Two throwing errors by junior catcher Carson Tinney in the first inning after strikeouts led to two unearned runs by the Bulldogs and three more unearned runs scored in the seventh after an error by junior third baseman Casey Borba to lead off the inning and a mental mistake by Rodriguez trying to throw out that runner at third with no outs.

“The other story of the game is, from a defensive standpoint, that’s the worst game we played the whole season, which is super disappointing on our end. It leaves a very bad taste in our mouth, and we’re certainly looking forward to a good day of practice tomorrow and getting back on the field on Monday to play better baseball, because I don’t know if it would have mattered, considering Volchko was so awesome, but, yeah, that was not good on the part of the Longhorns,” Schlossnagle said.

Between Volantis giving up two quick runs after issuing a leadoff walk and giving up a two-run home run to Rylan Lujo and the errors, Schlossnagle came away frustrated by how his team dealt with the spotlight of playing in Omaha.

“We spend more time, effort, and money than any program in the country on the mental game,” Schlossnagle said on Sunday. “That’s why, actually, last night was so disappointing, because I did see some guys super sped up in the moment.”

So the Longhorns need bounce-back performances from multiple players, including Tinney, who went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in addition to the two critical errors.

Texas will have junior designated hitter Ethan Mendoza available on Monday after he left Saturday’s loss after leaving the game when he aggravated his right shoulder injury on a single up the middle to lead off the eighth inning, According to Schlossnagle, Mendoza practiced on Sunday, but has been dealing with the shoulder issue all season, a new admission that helps explain why Mendoza’s average has dropped from .333 to .275.

On the mound for the Longhorns will be senior right-hander Ruger Riojas (5-2, 4.04 ERA), who struck out seven batters over 5.2 innings to clinch the Austin Super Regional against Oregon last week with his 111 pitches representing his longest outing the season, a positive sign after the UTSA transfer dealt with shoulder tendinitis at the end of the regular season.

Riojas is also familiar with the Alabama batting order after striking out 11 while allowing one run on three hits in 5.0 innings of a 3-1 Saturday win over the Crimson Tide back in mid-April that clinched that series.

Alabama, the No. 7 national seed, was sent to the brink of elimination with a 9-0 loss to Oklahoma in the early game on Saturday. In that April series, the Crimson Tide suffered a 10-2 loss on Friday before avoiding a sweep with the sweep with a 2-1 win on Sunday.

On the elimination Monday in Omaha, Alabama head coach Rob Vaughn is tapping right-hander Zane Adams (8-4, 3.96 ERA) to start for the Tide. The Texas product has pitched 12.1 innings in the postseason, allowing two runs in starts against USC Upstate and St. John’s with 13 total strikeouts while going over 100 pitches in each outing.

Going head-to-head with Riojas in Austin during the Saturday game, Adams was excellent, throwing six scoreless innings, scattering six hits by the Horns and striking out seven batters with two walks.

In that game, Texas threatened early, but Aiden Robbins was thrown out trying to steal second after a leadoff single and Mendoza stranded two runners with a first-pitch groundout. A double play in the second inning erased another leadoff single and a two-out double by Borba didn’t impact the score when a ground by Jayden Duplantier ended the inning.

Adams found a rhythm between the third and fifth innings, retiring 10 straight batters before encountering more trouble in the sixth when Robbins led off with another single and Mendoza eventually came to the plate with runners on second and third, going down swinging to end an 11-pitch at bat that stranded both runners and ended the outing by Adams.

On Monday, the Horns hope to put up a better fight against the Tide than they did against the Dawgs. Or even against Adams two months ago when Texas didn’t get on the scoreboard until putting up three decisive runs in the seventh against the Alabama bullpen.

“If we go down, we’re going to go down swinging,” Riojas said. “We’re gonna take a few people with us. I think that’s how we like it.”