No. 2 Texas Longhorns vs. No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners
The Texas Longhorns welcome the Land Thieves to Austin for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series. Texas and Oklahoma are in a 7-way tie atop the Southeastern Conference at 4-2. Full standings below. Texas and OU first met on May 9, 1910, a 3-2 win for Texas. The Longhorns lead the series 170-60-2. Last year, we took 2 out of 3 in Norman.
Series history here:
University of Texas Athletics Baseball History vs University of Oklahoma
Probable Pitching Matchups
Thursday: Oklahoma RHP LJ Mercurius (5-1, 1.87 ERA) vs. Texas RHP Ruger Riojas (4-0, 1.93 ERA). 7:00 p.m. first pitch.
Friday: Oklahoma LHP Cameron Johnson (3-1, 3.60 ERA) vs. Texas LHP Luke Harrison (3-0, 2.37 ERA). 7:00 p.m. first pitch.
Saturday: Oklahoma LHP Cord Rager (2-1, 4.97 ERA) vs. Texas LHP Dylan Volantis (3-0, 1.35 ERA)
All games will be broadcast on the SEC Network.
Official Preview here:
No. 2 Baseball preview: No. 8 Oklahoma – University of Texas Athletics
Link to the official Texas Game Notes:
https://texaslonghorns.com/documents/2026/3/26/3.26.26_Oklahoma_Notes.pdf
Going to be a fun long weekend at the Disch!
Great photo by Sara Diggins. My guess is a successful 6-3 put out.
Texas Longhorns Baseball
Texas is 20-4 and have won both of their SEC series. So far so good, but some bumps along the way that have me a bit concerned.
Ole Miss Series
Ole Miss won the Friday night game in extra innings after giving up 5 runs in the top of the 9th, tying it, then losing in the 11th. Texas rallied with a vengeance on Saturday, pounding the Rebels 11-2 on 13 hits. None of those hits were homeruns and only two went for extra bases (Tinney and DuPlantier had doubles). Just good station to station baseball. And what I think was Luke Harrison’s best game of the year. In the rubber game on Sunday, the bats stayed hot as Texas won the series with an 8-2 win behind Volantis (6 innings, 1 ER). Sam Cozart relieved Volantis in the 7th and earned a 3 inning save.
Texas dropped last week’s Tuesday game to Tarleton State 1-6, as Tinney homered in the first inning and the Horns managed just one more hit.
Auburn Series
This past weekend the Horns hit the road to the Plains for a big series with the No. 5 Auburn Tigers. Friday, the game was tied at 1 going to the ninth, and Aiden Robbins got his second homerun of the night to put the Horns up 2-1 and Adrian Rodriguez scored on Anthony Pack, Jr.’s fielder’s choice that went awry for the tigers. But, much like the Ole Miss Friday night game, our relievers squandered another great outing by Ruger Riojas and Auburn walked it off for a 4-3 win. Saturday was much better, and Texas held on for a 7-6 win. Jayden DuPlantier’s 3-run homer in the third inning was huge. Luke Harrison got the win, Thomas Burns got the save. Sunday afternoon, Dylan Volantis shut Auburn out through 4 innings, Sam Cozart came in for 2.2 innings of scoreless ball (and got the win), and the bullpen finished it off for a 5-0 shutout to win the series. Casey Borba’s 2 run homer in the 2nd inning was all the Horns would need, but Carson Tinney drove in 2 in the fourth. Borba hit into a bases-loaded double play in the 5th, but Rodriguez scored for the final Texas run of the day.
This past Tuesday night, Texas suffered a bad loss in Houston, blowing a 7 run lead (in the 5th inning) and losing 7-9. Not a good one.
Our weekend starters are doing great!
Ruger Riojas. 56 strikeouts to 5 walks – Absolutely incredible.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 1.93 | 4-0 | .83 | 32.2 | 22 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 56 | 4 | 0 | 1 | .185 |
Luke Harrison is pitching much better of late.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.37 | 3-0 | 1.25 | 30.1 | 26 | 12 | 8 | 12 | 31 | 9 | 0 | 1 | .230 |
Dylan Volantis is probably the best Sunday starter in college baseball.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 1.35 | 3-0 | 1.02 | 33.1 | 22 | 6 | 5 | 12 | 44 | 6 | 0 | 0 | .180 |
Sam Cozart is now 4-0 and pitching very well. Amazing for a freshman.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.25 | 4-0 | .71 | 24.0 | 11 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 30 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1.33 |
Michael Winter is another freshman who has pitched relatively well.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 0.0 | 1-0 | 1.35 | 6.2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .217 |
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 0.0 | 1-1 | 1.22 | 9.0 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .265 |
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.08 | 1-1 | .69 | 8.2 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .129 |
Haiden Leffew is a junior, transfer from Wake Forest. He’s had some good innings.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.45 | 1-0 | .95 | 7.1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .136 |
The rest of the bullpen is a bit erratic right now. Max Weiner and Schlossnagle have some work to do to get some of these arms back to where we thought they would be.
As a staff, Texas is still No. 3 in the nation with 60 earned runs in 198.1 innings, a 2.72 ERA. Southern Cal is first with a 1.83 ERA, and Auburn is second with a 2.50 ERA. Oklahoma is 21st with a team ERA of 3.54 (79 earned runs in 201 innings, and 93 total runs).
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/baseball/d1/current/team/211
Texas offensive stats:
Aiden Robbins (junior transfer from Seton Hall) is on fire. Casey Borba is hot too. Overall batting averages and slugging have cooled a bit, but still some nice averages. I would really like to see Ethan Mendoza’s on base percentage a bit higher since he’s hitting leadoff.
Season stats here:
2026 Baseball Cumulative Statistics
Oklahoma Land Thieves
19-5 overall and 4-2 in the SEC.
Oklahoma started the season strong with 3 wins in the Shriners Children’s College Showdown, getting wins over Texas Tech (10-3), Oklahoma State (10-1), and No. 10 Texas Christian (12-2). The Land Thieves followed that up with 10-6 win over New Mexico State before sweeping Coppin State in 3 run-rule games (22-1, 24-0, and 11-0). OU had three football games last season where they scored 17 or fewer points (including, of course, their 23-6 loss to Texas). Also note that the Land Thieves have scored 192 runs this season, and 57 of those (29.7%) were in the Coppin State series. [The Longhorns have 212 runs.]
Oklahoma split a mid-week series with Arizona State. Beat Gonzaga 14-4 and 11-1 (both run-rule) before dropping their Sunday game 7-1. [As a side note, the Land Thieves didn’t make the NCAA hoops tournament, and Texas beat Gonzaga 74-68 to advance to the Sweet 16.] 2-0 over Dallas Baptist in a Tuesday game, then swept Santa Clara before wrapping up their pre-SEC schedule with a 6-1 win over UT Arlington.
The Thieves hosted No. 22 Texas Agricultural & Mechanical to start conference play and won Friday 8-7, lost Saturday 5-9, and won Sunday 12-11. Dropped a Tuesday night game to Southeastern Louisiana 0-3 in Hammond.
Last weekend, the Sooners were in Baton Rouge. Lost the Thursday night game 1-7 but came back for a 4-2 win on Friday and 4-3 win on Saturday.
Based on a few box scores:
Trey Gambill leads off and plays left field.
Camden Johnson bats second and plays third base.
Brendan Brock bats third and catches.
Jaxon Willitts hits clean up and plays shortstop.
Deiten Lachance bats 5th, plays first base.
Alec Blair bats 6th, plays right field.
Kyle Branch plays second base, bats down in the order.
Jason Walk plays centerfield.
Skip Johnson is still coaching in Norman. A great baseball coach. Almost always has good pitching.
TCT Thoughts
This is a critical home series for the Longhorns. Our biggest rival and a top-10 matchup. I think the Longhorns will take the series, but I really want a sweep. And the only way we sweep the Land Thieves is if the Texas bullpen pitches better. Hoping to see good offense from Tinney and Becerra this weekend.
College Baseball Analytics PEA Ratings comparison and projection and some statistics. Not sure how good this is yet, but learning.
Their rankings.
https://pearatings.com/cbase/d1/stats?season=2026
I like the Kill Shots stat.
TSR – Team Strength Rating | WAR – PEAR’s WAR Approximation | WPOE – Win Percentage Over Expected (Luck) | PYTHAG – Pythagorean Win Percentage | KSHOTS – Inning where team scores 2+ runs and allows 0 | CONCD – Conceded Killshots | KSHOT R – Killshot Ratio | KSHOTS/G – Killshots Scored Per Game | CONCD/G – Conceded Killshots Per Game | ERA – Earned Run Average | WHIP – Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched | K/9 – Strikeouts Per 9 Innings | RPG – Runs Per Game | BA – Batting Average | OBP – On Base Percentage | SLG – Slugging | OPS – On Base Plus Slugging | PCT – Fielding Percentage
Their ratings and resume:
https://pearatings.com/cbase/d1?season=2026
NET – PEAR’s Ranking using TSR, RQI, SOS | TSR – Team Strength Rating
RQI – Resume Quality Index | SOS – Strength of Schedule | RemSOS – Remaining Strength of Schedule | NCSOS – Non-Conference Strength of Schedule
ELO – Warren Nolan’s ELO | RPI – Warren Nolan’s Live RPI
SEC This Weekend
Some great baseball this weekend. Baseball versions of the Red River Shootout, the Iron Bowl, and the Egg Bowl.
Southeastern Conference Baseball
SEC Baseball Stats: Stats – Baseball – Southeastern Conference
Rankings
D1 Baseball
Texas Women’s Basketball
Sweet 16 Bound! The women are 33-3 after whipping Missouri State 87-45 in the first round of the tournament then beating the Oregon Ducks 100-58 on Sunday. On Saturday, they play 5 seed Kentucky at 2:00 p.m. in Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, game on ABC. In February, the Longhorns beat the Wildcats 64-53 in Austin.
Texas Men’s Basketball
Texas not only made it to the tournament, but won their play-in game over North Carolina State. The No. 11 seed Longhorns then beat 6-seed Brigham Young 79-71, with Matas Vokietaitis leading the way with 23 points and 16 rebounds. Saturday night, Texas beat perennial powerhouse and 3-seed Gonzaga 74-68. Vokietaitis and Pope each had 17 points and Nic Codie added 12 off the bench. Texas is playing its best defense of the season, and they will need it on Thursday when they face 2-seed Purdue (ranked No. 8 before the tournament began, 29-8 overall). 6:10 p.m. on CBS from San Jose. Will be multi-tasking at Disch-Falk Field.
Texas Football
Our brand is huge. Second most watched team in the 2025 regular season.
Can’t wait for next season!
Jim Nicar
1942: A view of U.T. Austin’s South Mall, the Texas Capitol, and downtown Austin from the UT Tower, when the Music Building (today’s Rainey Hall) was brand new and the only building on the mall.
From Jim’s March 24, 2026 Post on X.
Photo of the Week
The bats are back! Remember – bats are good and we love them. No bats, the agave plants are not pollinated. No agave, no tequila.
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Tim Taylor P.O. Box 5371 Austin, Texas 78763-5371