AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle wanted to give Longhorns sports fans something to do this weekend since the football team is idle and won’t be back in town until November.
He thought scheduling a fall baseball game against a bitter rival, Texas Tech, would be the solution to the burnt orange blues.
The Longhorns and Red Raiders will face off in a 12-inning scrimmage at 1 p.m. Saturday in Round Rock at Dell Diamond, and Schlossnagle said the timing was 100% intentional. He wants to give fans something to watch while the football team is off for the week.
“When you have six weeks without a home football game, it’s tough on everybody,” Schlossnagle said. “It front-loaded our recruiting. We’ve had three straight weeks with a lot of guys on visits … and we put the Round Rock game there in hopes of getting a great crowd.”
The 2026 season is months away, and Schlossnagle is starting to get an idea of how his 16 returning letterwinners and the 23 newcomers will mesh once the games count. Perhaps the biggest shift with a returning player will be sophomore left-handed pitcher Dylan Volantis shifting to a starter after being one of the most dominant relievers in the country last year.
Schlossnagle said that’s a “natural progression” for a player like Volantis, who has “a starter’s moxy.” Don’t expect to see him throw this fall, however. Volantis battled mononucleosis over the summer and is recovering from that, and by the time he’s ready to pitch in a scrimmage setting, the fall season will be wrapped up.
“He’s throwing, but he won’t pitch competitively this fall,” Schlossnagle said. “We’re going to allow him to gain his weight back, get stronger and then get on (pitching coach) Max’s (Weiner) 16-week program leading up to the season.”
The pitching trio of Ruger Riojas, Luke Harrison and Max Grubbs all turned down the MLB Draft to come back for another season. Schlossnagle initially likes Riojas to go back to a reliever role. Harrison and Grubbs are candidates to be in the starting rotation, along with Wake Forest transfer Haiden Leffew, among others. Schlossnagle said there are a few freshmen who will get spot starts and help the staff throughout the year.
“Those three coming back were the anchor that we really needed,” Schlossnagle said.
Perhaps the crown jewel of the 2025 baseball transfer portal was catcher Carson Tinney. After an All-American campaign for Notre Dame last season, Tinney is now in Austin. He hit .348 with 17 homers and a .498 on-base percentage, and now he’ll be the main backstop to handle the Longhorns’ pitching staff.
Tinney said he “wanted to find a better fit” after the Fighting Irish failed to make the NCAA Tournament last season, and his visit to Texas was the only one he took.
Both Tinney and former Longhorn Rylan Galvan were nominated for the Buster Posey Award last season, so Tinney got to pick Galvan’s brain and get his firsthand knowledge about the program.
“It definitely helped my process, getting to know him and knowing what the coaching staff was like,” Tinney said. “He carried a lot of weight on the team last year, and I hope to take ownership of that role.”
Galvan was drafted in the 13th round by the White Sox and is currently in their farm system.
Schlossnagle said he hopes Tinney doesn’t have to catch as much as Galvan did last year. He expects junior college transfer Andrew Ermis and freshman Presley Courville to log some innings behind the plate.
The fall schedule, which concludes with a scrimmage Oct. 3 against Lamar at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, is a time for Schlossnagle and the rest of the coaching staff to get an early look at how some of the young players handle a game-like setting.
“We’re going to try to play as many people as we can get out there,” Schlossnagle said. “We won’t be two weeks into fall practice by the time we play Texas Tech, so there might be some hiccups, but you’re just trying to keep everyone healthy and have a good time.”
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