AUSTIN (KXAN) — No. 1 Texas lost its second consecutive series in Southeastern Conference play after falling to Florida 4-1 Sunday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, and Longhorns head coach Jim Schlossnagle didn’t sugar coat his postgame thoughts.
“This is my most disappointing loss of the season,” he said. “Senior day, at home, gotta a chance to play for a championship. Tip your cap to (Florida starting pitcher Aiden) King, maybe he was the reason. We’ll find out, but I’m just really disappointed with this one.”
The Longhorns lost Friday’s series opener 8-2 and then snapped a 4-game SEC skid with a 5-2 win Saturday.
Texas could have clinched at least a tie for the SEC regular season championship had they beaten the Gators on Sunday, but they couldn’t solve King on the mound. King, a freshman, fanned nine and walked three in seven innings, allowing two hits to keep Texas off the scoreboard. The Longhorns scored their only run on an Adrian Rodriguez bases-loaded walk by reliever Jake Clemente in the eighth inning and left 10 runners on base. Texas stranded the bases loaded following the walk and left two on in the ninth after bringing the tying run to the plate.
Catcher Rylan Galvan called the performance “embarrassing.”
“We didn’t play to the standard we wanted to and just didn’t get it done,” he said. “There’s got to be a different level of dialed-in, especially this upcoming week. We have to go all-in on everything.”
Texas had four hits, one coming from centerfielder Will Gasparino in the fourth inning. He didn’t have a chance for more after Schlossnagle removed him from the lineup and sent Easton Winfield to the outfield, shifting Jonah Williams to center. When asked if Gasparino suffered an injury on the hit and that was why he came out of the game, Schlossnagle said that wasn’t the case.
“It was internal, team,” he said. “He’s fine, he’ll be back out there on Friday.”
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Schlossnagle said some frustrations offensively stemmed from not getting leadoff runners on base. The Longhorns were 1-for-9 to begin innings and 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position. They also struck out looking nine times.
“We have to be more competitive through the lineup,” Schlossnagle said. “Hopefully, we can look back on this game and say that was when the offense turned around.”
Getting slugger Max Belyeu back from a thumb injury would certainly help with that, but he’s still at least a week away. Schlossnagle hopes he’ll be ready for the postseason.
With a 3-game road series against rival Oklahoma left on the SEC regular season schedule Thursday-Saturday, playoff baseball isn’t far away. With his team scuffling, losing five of its last six SEC games, Schlossnagle said he and the rest of the coaching staff have to get the pitching staff shored up moving forward. He said Ruger Riojas and Luke Harrison are still his top of the rotation guys, but the question mark is at No. 3 when the NCAA regional tournaments begin.
Freshman Jason Flores struggled in his start, pitching 2.1 innings with two walks and two hit batters while allowing two runs on two hits. Schlossnagle said he’s “going through what is a normal growth period in elite college baseball for a freshman.”
“We have to get our pitching in order and get the guys in the right spots,” Schlossnagle said. “We need to figure out another guy who can start and give us a good chance, and it could be Flores, and we’ve had a good season, so we have a little wiggle room to try stuff before the regionals.”
