The series loss to the Gators in Austin spurred rare post-game meetings for the Longhorns.
For one of the most demonstrative pitch takers in college baseball, the uncomfortable swaying from Rylan Galvan in the post-game press conference was indicative of what head coach Jim Schlossnagle called the “most disappointing loss of the season” in the 4-1 defeat by the Florida Gators on Sunday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field suffered by the No. 1 Texas Longhorns in dropping their second consecutive conference series.
“What we did out there, it was terrible, unacceptable, but look at it in the face, face it and move on,” Galvan said.
The moving on process for the Longhorns looked differently than it normally does under Schlossnagle, who almost entirely eschews post-game meetings, positioning the first-year Texas head coach on the opposite spectrum from the legendary and legendarily profane Augie Garrido.
“I don’t take out anger or frustration on the team. My job is to call a spade to spade. I don’t like to meet with teams after games. Normally, I only meet with them when we lost a tough one or just to kind of recenter the team a little bit, but today was a little different,” Schlossnagle said.
The team’s leadership council that included Galvan, injured junior right fielder Max Belyeu, senior first baseman Kimble Schuessler, junior shortstop Jalin Flores, and senior right-hander Dre Duplantier met after the game and Schlossnagle made his own rare post-game address.
“Super, super Disappointing Day. Had a lot to play for, had a lot out in front of us, pretty disappointed today,” Schlossnagle said.
For Galvan explicitly, the disappointment was in failing to clinch an SEC regular-season title on Mother’s Day and Senior Night in front of a hometown crowd that has supported the Longhorns all season.
For Schlossnagle, the disappointment was in the lack of competitiveness in the batter’s box against one of the nation’s best freshman pitchers in Florida right-hander Aidan King, who didn’t allow a run over seven innings, striking out nine and working around three walks. The seven innings pitched by King and his nine strikeouts were both career highs, continuing a burgeoning streak of pitchers turning in career-best performances against the Longhorns.
“Tip your cap to King. Maybe that was the reason, but we’ll find out — I’m just really disappointed in this one,” Schlossnagle said.
As good as King was on Sunday, an increasingly familiar refrain developed from Galvan in discussing the level of competitiveness at the plate that doesn’t reach the program standards.
“The lack of being able to make quicker adjustments, just felt like the compete level at times in at bats just wasn’t there,” Galvan said.
Relatedly or unrelatedly, sophomore center fielder Will Gasparino was benched for what Schlossnagle described as “internal, team” reasons that won’t keep him out of the lineup on Friday.
In contrast by the results at the plate, freshman Adrian Rodriguez continues to compete at a high level and play multiple positions despite continuing to deal with the hand injury that has plagued him since he was hit by a Missouri pitcher in late March.
“We’ve got to be more competitive through the lineup. Adrian Rodriguez is out there playing with a freaking really banged up hand and he can take a swing and feel like his hand’s gonna fall off and get hit a line drive to the wall in center field off great pitcher. We need more guys like that,” Schlossnagle said.
