No. 4 Texas stomps No. 11 Alabama, 10-2
Heading into another high-profile SEC series against the No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide, Jim Schlossnagle was adamant that moving sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis into the Friday start was only about his missed start last Sunday in College Station when a lengthy weather delay resulted in the cancellation of the series finale against the Texas A&M Aggies.
But after Volantis struck out a career-high 12 batters in a dominant six-inning performance to enable a decisive 10-2 win by the No. 4 Texas Longhorns on Friday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Schlossnagle changed his mind, indicating that Volantis will remain in that role after the best outing of his superlative young career, allowing two runs on four hits with one walk.
The elite curveball for Volantis was working, but he also flashed a fastball with good tilt that typically sat around 93 miles per hour, a cutter against right-handed batters, and the changeup he debuted this season.
Freshman right-hander Sam Cozart picked up his fifth save of the season by pitching three scoreless, hitless innings to finish the game, striking out five and walking one.
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Texas jumped out to an early lead in front of big home crowd as Schlossnagle moved junior center fielder into the leadoff spot in place of junior second baseman Ethan Mendoza with the return of sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, who batted third in front of freshman left fielder Anthony Pack.
After Robbins doubled down the right-field line, junior catcher Carson Tinney launched his seventh home run in the last seven games, letting a breaking ball get deep before taking a short, powerful swing to send the ball over the home bullpen in right field.
Mendoza drove on Rodriguez on an RBI single to finish the scoring in the first before the Longhorns added one run in the third and another in the fifth on productive outs, then blew the game open with three runs in the sixth on RBI doubles by Robbins and Tinney and a run-scoring single by Pack and two runs in the eight on a double by Pack and a sacrifice fly by Mendoza.
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The top four batters in the order produced 11 of the 16 hits by Texas as Robbins went 2-for-3 with three runs, Tinney had three hits in four at bats, scoring four times while driving in three runs, Rodriguez went 2-for-5 in his return, and Pack notched four hits, setting his career high.
With the possibility of thunderstorms late Saturday afternoon, first pitch was moved up from 2 p.m. Central to noon Central.
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