No. 2 Texas Longhorns vs. No. 18 Texas Agricultural & Mechanical Aggies
The Texas Longhorns head to Brazos County for a huge series with Texas Agricultural & Mechanical this weekend. Texas Agricultural & Mechanical is ranked No. 18, but after they drop this weekend’s series to the Longhorns, and with their Tuesday night loss in San Marcos to the Southwest Texas State Bobcats, that will likely be the apex of their ranking this season.
Texas is 27-5 and 9-3 in the Southeastern Conference, while Texas Agricultural & Mechanical is 25-7 and 7-5 in the SEC.
One of the greatest rivalries in college athletics will continue Friday night at Blue Bell Park. If you want to get an idea of how big this is, tickets in the really good seats for Friday night were well over $400 a piece Thursday night (with some absurd prices over $3,000), lesser seats were in the $200 to $300 range. The Fighting Texas Aggies will be out in full force and chanting and sawing and squeezing and blowing bubbles, as they should be. A great college baseball environment, and a very good college baseball team.
Texas goes to College Station after run-ruling Incarnate Word Tuesday night, 16-4, and winning an SEC road series (2-1) against South Carolina. Texas Agricultural & Mechanical is coming off that Tuesday night loss to the kitties and a big SEC series win at home against Vanderbilt (2-1), which included run-ruling the Vandy Boys in the nightcap of the closing doubleheader, 12-0. Pretty impressive. More on both teams’ seasons below.
Series history here:
https://texaslonghorns.com/sports/baseball/opponent-history/texas-a&m-university/23
Texas leads 244-130-5, and we are 100-73 in College Station. The Longhorns swept Texas Agricultural & Mechanical in Austin last season to re-ignite the rivalry in the Southeastern Conference (3 great baseball games, all one run wins for the Horns).
Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday: Texas RHP Ruger Riojas (5-1, 2.74 ERA) vs. Texas A&M LHP Shane Sdao (3-2, 5.48 ERA)
Saturday: Texas LHP Luke Harrison (4-0, 2.72 ERA) vs. Texas A&M RHP Aiden Sims (6-0, 3.32 ERA)
Sunday: Texas LHP Dylan Volantis (4-0, 2.01 ERA) vs. TBA for the Farmers
Game times & Info:
Friday: 7:00 p.m., SEC Network
Saturday: 2:00 p.m., ESPN2
Sunday: 1:00 p.m., SEC Network+
Radio: 103.1 FM/AM-1300 The Zone, with the Voice of the Longhorns Craig Way and the Great Keith Moreland
Per the Official Preview, this is the first time since 1992 that the Longhorns and Texas Agricultural & Mechanical will play a 3-game set in College Station. Recall that for many years (well, 1993 to 2012), Texas and A&M would play a split series – 1 game in Austin and 2 and College Station, then flip the next year. [Same with Baylor for many years.]
Link to the official Texas Game Notes:
https://texaslonghorns.com/documents/2026/4/10/4.10.26_Texas_A_M_Notes.pdf
Texas Longhorns Baseball
The Longhorns are 27-5 and have won all four of their SEC series. Updates on players and stats below, and review of the last two series wins (including the great sweep of the Land Thieves) now in a separate section below.
Our weekend rotation is a combined 13-1 with an ERA of 2.49, a WHIP of 1.08, and a batting average against of 0.209.
Ruger Riojas. Ruger had his first bad start of the year in Columbia against the Gamecocks, giving up 8 hits and 6 earned runs in 3 innings. His ERA went from 1.93 to 2.74, his WHIP from 0.83 to 1.05, and his batting average against from 0.185 to 0.224. But his strikeouts to walks ratio is still a stellar 68 to 9. Expect Riojas to bounce back big at Blue Bell.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.74 | 5-1 | 1.05 | 42.2 | 36 | 13 | 13 | 9 | 68 | 11 | 1 | 1 | .224 |
Luke Harrison pitched well and got the win in Columbia last Friday night. Big.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.72 | 4-0 | 1.12 | 43.0 | 32 | 17 | 13 | 16 | 42 | 12 | 0 | 2 | .206 |
Dylan Volantis is the best Sunday starter in college baseball.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.01 | 4-0 | 1.07 | 44.2 | 33 | 11 | 10 | 15 | 57 | 6 | 0 | 1 | .198 |
Sam Cozart looks like he is the closer. My goodness. Now 5-0 with 4 saves.
| ERA | W-L | WHIP | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | 2B | 3B | HR | B/AVG |
| 2.08 | 5-0 | .59 | 30.1 | 12 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 41 | 4 | 0 | 3 | .117 |
As a staff, Texas is No. 2 in the nation with 94 earned runs in 275.1 innings, a 3.07 ERA (110 total runs). Texas Agricultural & Mechanical is 61st with a team ERA of 4.74 (139 earned runs in 264 innings, and 147 total runs).
https://www.ncaa.com/stats/baseball/d1/current/team/211
Texas Offense
Lots of good stuff happening at the plate, thanks to Tulo as noted above. The Horns have elevated their offense. Texas is 42nd in batting average with a team BA of .302.
Carson Tinney hits the baseball very hard. Our outstanding defensive catcher is batting .308 and slugging .643, and when he gets ahold of one it is usually crushed. His 1.105 OPS is stellar.
Anthony Pack, Jr. has moved to the clean-up spot with Rodriguez on the IL. He was Freshman of the Week after the South Carolina series. Against the Land Thieves, Pack was 3 for 10, 4 walks, 6 runs, and 2 RBI with 2 strikeouts. In Columbia against the Gamecocks, Pack was 8 for 11 with 2 walks, 2 RBI, and no [zero!] strikeouts. Tuesday against Incarnate Word, 1 for 4 with 2 walks, 2 runs, and 3 RBI, one strikeout. Seven games, .480 BA, 7 RBI, 7 walks, 8 runs, and 3 strikeouts. 🔥
Ethan Mendoza was struggling a bit, and a couple of weeks ago Tulo told Mendoza to move up in the box. That little bit of great coaching is paying big dividends. Ethan is back in form and hitting the ball well.
Texas Defense
Texas defense is very good. 18th in the country at .981 percent (Aggies are 17th at .982). Becerra has been very good at shortstop with Rodriguez sidelined, and Borba moved back to third and is playing great. Josh Livingston has taken Borba’s place at first, although Ashton Larson was there on Tuesday. Nice to have this quality depth.
Season stats here:
2026 Baseball Cumulative Statistics
Texas One
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Texas Agricultural & Mechanical Aggies
Farmers are 25-7 and 7-5 in SEC play. They are a very good baseball team, and I think all three games will be close.
The Aggies opened the season with a sweep of the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles (still the hottest 3 days I’ve ever had at the Disch – 2018 Super Regional). The Aggies swept the Pennsylvania Quakers, then won 2 Tuesday night games.
Run-ruled Virginia Tech, lost to No. 1 UC Los Angeles 11-1 (in 7), and beat Arizona State 9-3. Beat UIW 11-1 in 7 and then swept Oakland University (Rochester, Michigan).
Texas Agricultural & Mechanical opened SEC play dropping their series to the then No. 9 Oklahoma Land Thieves in Norman. The Aggies hosted Georgia in College Station and lost that series 1-2 (they did run-rule the Bulldogs on Sunday, 18-5 in 7); Georgia is really, really good.
Aggy went to Columbia and swept Missouri, and last weekend they won their series with Vanderbilt 2-1.
Aggie Pitching:
Aggie Offense:
The two guys at the top, Caden Sorrell and Gavin Grahovac, are excellent ball players. Their OPS (as well as a couple of other Aggies) is higher than Tinney’s. They get on base.
Texas Agricultural & Mechanical full stats here:
2026 Baseball Cumulative Statistics
TCT Thoughts
This may be the biggest baseball weekend ever in College Station, as the Aggies seek not only to beat their biggest rival, but also to beat Coach Jim Schlossnagle. I have seen a lot of obscene hatred on social media over the last 15-20 years, but only the Sand Aggies’ obnoxiousness over the Texas hiring of Chris Beard exceeds Texas Agricultural & Mechanical’s obsessive anger over CDC’s hiring of Schlossnagle from Aggieland. For those who might not recall, CDC met Beard at a McDonald’s in Plainview to seal the deal in April of 2021. Afterwards, Texas Tech athletic director Kirby Hocutt later remarked, “Had he gone to any other university, he’d be celebrated. But there’s just certain things you cannot do, and one of them is you can’t leave Texas Tech for Texas.” Well Kirby, not so much. More roads run to and through Austin than Lubbock.
On June 25, 2024, the day after Texas Agricultural & Mechanical lost to Tennessee (the Other UT, how fitting) in the College World Series, CDC met Schlossnagle to close the deal for Jim to move to Austin. Schlossnagle’s contract with Texas Agricultural & Mechanical had a specific buyout clause if The University came calling – $2.7 million, double the buyout if he left for any other school. Nice to be able to stroke checks like that. Schloss was gracious in his departure, just as I have found him to be in all my interactions. “Most importantly, I want to thank Texas A&M. This wasn’t obviously a move from one school to another school – this is a great rivalry. I couldn’t be more thankful and humbled by the support that we got there. From staff and administration, and [Texas Agricultural & Mechanical President] Gen. Mark Welsh has become a very dear friend, one of the greatest leaders I’ve ever been around.”
So, with that as the backdrop, Schloss and the Horns have a big weekend in front of them.
Texas needs to win Game 1. Riojas has his bad game behind him, and he needs to get on the bump and shove. I think he will. But Friday night will be the loudest and rowdiest game the Horns will play this regular season, and that’s going to require a lot of focus and discipline – at the plate but especially in the field. We can’t give away outs and runs.
I think Game 2 is going to be interesting. Harrison is pitching well, and the Aggy Saturday starter, Aiden Sims, has quite a line as you can see above. Guessing a 1 run win for the Horns on Saturday.
Sunday, Texas will either be playing for a sweep or to win the series. I will put my money on Volantis and the Horns.
The run game is going to be interesting. Texas is 61 of 69 in stolen bases, and opponents have 10 bags on 17 attempts. The Aggies are 39 of 47 stolen, allowing 20 of 27.
Texas needs to get first inning runs. Look at the first inning advanced stats below. Texas is very good, Aggies not so much. That seems to be a nice edge that the Longhorns might have, and Texas needs to take advantage of that. It might mean bunting, although I sometimes think that Schlossnagle feels about bunting the same way nature feels about vacuums. Anyway, Tulowitski’s superb coaching and our hitters’ plate discipline has been evident all season, and Texas needs to be very conscious of that early in games.
College Baseball Analytics PEA Ratings comparison and projection and some statistics.
Of note, out of 149 college baseball games in their Game Quality Index metric, our matchup with Aggies is the best game on the schedule with a 9.1 GQI rating.
Ratings and Resume:
https://pearatings.com/cbase/d1?season=2026
Their rankings.
https://pearatings.com/cbase/d1/stats?season=2026
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
Texas Longhorns Killshots
Texas Aggies Killshots
So, as I continue to dive deeper into these sabermetrics, I am more intrigued with killshots and figured out the Spartans stat too. A Spartan is achieving two of these “Killshot” innings consecutively in a game.
Texas Longhorns Baseball Update
A look at the Horns.
No. 2 Texas Longhorns vs. No. 5 Auburn Tigers
Texas went to the Plains and took 2 out of 3 from Auburn. Dropped game one 3-4, but bounced back strong. 7-6 win on Saturday and a 5-0 shutout on Sunday. A solid series that many pundits predicted to go the way of the Tigers.
No. 8 Oklahoma Land Thieves vs. No. 2 Texas Longhorns
The series in Austin a couple of weeks ago may be the best weekend series of baseball outside of a regional or super regional which I have ever attended in Austin. It was amazing baseball. Texas opened the series with a 14-0, run-rule beatdown of the Land Thieves. Friday night, Texas came back from a 0-3 deficit and tied in the ninth inning before Ashton Larson hit a 10th inning single to drive in Becerra for the win. Saturday went to extra innings too, as Texas was down 4-2 before getting runs in the 7th and 8th to tie and getting the game winner in the 10th after loading the bases and Borba singled to drive in Rogriguez for the win. A run-rule BTA whipping of the land thieves, followed by 2 extra-inning comebacks where we got to watch the Horns rip the Sooners’ hearts out and have walk-off extra inning wins – pretty awesome. First sweep of the Thieves since 2014.
No. 2 Texas Longhorns vs. South Carolina Gamecocks
South Carolina is a good baseball school, with 2 national championships, and 4 national runners-up. Texas beat them 2 of those times – 1975 and 2002. Thursday night was ugly, as Riojas had a bad night and the Gamecocks got their second SEC win, 9-1 over the Horns. But Texas bounced back with a 5-3 win on Good Friday and a 4-1 win on Saturday.
SEC This Weekend
Some great baseball this weekend.
One of Kyle Umlang’s #AggieFactThursday posts: Texas A&M Baseball has 132 wins against the Longhorns. Texas Baseball got their 131st win against the Aggies in 1964.
Southeastern Conference Baseball
SEC Baseball Stats: Stats – Baseball – Southeastern Conference
Rankings
USA Today Coaches Poll
D1 Baseball
Texas Women’s Basketball
The Beautiful Season came to a bitter end with the loss to the Bruins. One heck of a season, and when it was all over, Texas came up one game short. Of note, they beat National Champion UCLA earlier in the season and runner-up South Carolina too. Vic Schaeffer is a fantastic coach. Loved this team. Thanks to all but especially Rori Harmon and Madison Booker.
Texas Men’s Basketball
Texas lost a close Sweet 16 game to the Purdue Boilermakers, 77-79. What a season. Can’t wait to see what Sean Miller and Chris Ogden put together for next year.
Jim Nicar
“U.T. Austin’s Tower from above. Architect Paul Cret purposely placed the Tower in the back, not in the center of the building footprint. Standing on the Main Mall, the Tower will almost seemed detached, like a mountain in the distance, which helps to exaggerate its height.”
From Jim’s April 8, 2026 Post on X.
Also, support the renovation of our beloved Tower: Support Our Tower
Photo of the Week
From JType’s Instagram post on March 30, 2026
On X: @tctayloratx
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Tim Taylor P.O. Box 5371 Austin, Texas 78763-5371