AUSTIN (KXAN) — The ultimate goal for any NCAA Division I baseball team is to play in Omaha, Nebraska, at the College World Series. For teams in the Southeastern Conference, however, playing in Hoover, Alabama, isn’t too bad, either.
The Texas Longhorns, seeded No. 1 in their first-ever SEC tournament, will take on Tennessee in the quarterfinals at 3 p.m. Thursday at Hoover Metropolitan Stadium. The Volunteers beat Alabama in a 15-10 slugfest Wednesday in the second round, pitting the two shades of orange UT schools against each other for the first time this season.
Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle knows his team will host a regional in the opening round of the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens in Hoover. The body of work is what it is at 42-11 overall and 22-8 in SEC play, and the selection committee won’t take that away from Texas if there’s a hiccup. With that said, the tournament winner gets a trophy, and Schlossnagle likes those.
“Anytime there’s a trophy to be won, we’d love to bring it home,” he said. “For 10 weeks, in the best conference in the country, we’ve played pretty well. I want us to play well and play clean baseball.”
Having been to the tournament with Texas A&M, Schlossnagle said the team won’t want to leave once they get there.
“To get a win, and then have an off day to enjoy Hoover and the other games, and being around the atmosphere, that would be a great experience for our team,” he said. “The tournament has been there for so long, and it’s such a tradition that the fans plan on going. It’s a mini Omaha. You get police escorts to games … and you feel like a big leaguer.”
Whether they get to stay there for more than Thursday is an entirely different thing. It’s now a single-elimination tournament, so if the defending SEC and national champions Vols have a good day and the Horns don’t, the trip to mini Omaha will be short-lived. While that would be disappointing for Texas, it wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“The bigger picture is still at hand. It’s my job to have them ready for next weekend,” he said. The NCAA tournament begins May 30.
If Texas beats the Vols, they’ll get Friday off before playing in the tournament semifinals at noon Saturday. The championship is set for 2 p.m. Sunday.
Family matters
The NCAA tournament selection committee will release its national seeds Sunday and the rest of the field Monday. Texas will be a national seed and will most likely be in the top eight, having a chance to host a regional and super regional before the College World Series.
Longhorns catcher Rylan Galvan doesn’t want to get too far ahead of himself, but he’s seen some tournament field projections, and he might get to see some family in the postseason if things play out the right way.
His brother, Rene, is an outfielder for the UTRGV Vaqueros. Texas faced them earlier in the season during a midweek game, winning 11-4, but some media outlets are predicting the squad from Edinburg could come back to Austin as a No. 3 or 4 seed in a regional. The thought of playing his brother again brought a smile to Galvan’s face.
“I’d be lying to say that I wasn’t paying a little bit of attention to it,” Galvan said. “I don’t know what to believe because there are so many of them, but I’ve seen UTRGV in a few of those. I know they lost in their conference tournament so I don’t know how that will play out, but it would be super cool to have them here.”
The Vaqueros (36-18, 22-8 Southland) finished tied for the Southland Conference regular season championship with Southeastern Louisiana, but fell in the conference tournament to Houston Christian.
While there will always be brotherly love between Rylan and Rene, he said the stakes are too high in the postseason to play nice like during the regular season.
“It definitely won’t be like the first time. I won’t be as nice,” Galvan said, laughing. “I’m trying to send him home.”
