Casey Borba hit two home runs, Temo Becerra added a three-run shot in the ninth, and Texas rolled to 16–0 with a 15–4 win at Bobcat Ballpark — the Longhorns’ first true road game of the season. SEC play opens in three days.
Fifteen home games and a neutral-site tournament in Houston — that was the entire Texas resume entering Tuesday night. Every win had come on friendly ground. Bobcat Ballpark in San Marcos was the first true road game of the season, the first time the Longhorns had to play in someone else’s building with someone else’s crowd. They scored 15 runs on 15 hits with zero errors. The building didn’t matter.
Casey Borba authored the evening. A three-run home run in the third blew the game open. A solo shot in the seventh was punctuation. He had walked in a run in the first inning before either homer — four RBI on a Tuesday night at a Big Sun Belt ballpark that was supposed to be the kind of game you just get through. Borba treated it like a showcase. Two home runs, an RBI walk, and the kind of at-bat discipline that doesn’t show up in the box score but shows up in the way a lineup turns over.
Anthony Pack Jr.’s two-run homer in the fourth extended the lead to 7–0 before Texas State pushed three across in their half. Temo Becerra’s three-run bomb in the ninth was insurance that doubled as a statement — this lineup has power from spots one through nine, and the depth is answering questions nobody bothered asking three weeks ago.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 15 | 15 | 0 |
| Texas State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 2 |
Texas jumped on Texas State starter early. Jared Rodriguez singled home a run in the first. Borba drew a bases-loaded walk to make it 2–0 before an out was recorded in San Marcos. The third inning was where the game tilted beyond recovery — Borba’s three-run homer highlighted a three-run frame that pushed the lead to 5–0. Pack Jr.’s two-run shot in the fourth made it 7–0, and while Texas State responded with three runs in their half of the fourth, it was the kind of response that showed fight without changing the math.
The eighth inning was a clinic in distributed offense. Rodriguez doubled home a run. Cade Livingston ripped an RBI double. Charlie Duplantier cleared the bases with a two-run single. Three runs on three hits from three different bats — the damage didn’t come from one swing. It came from a lineup that cycled through and punished every pitch left in the zone. The ninth brought Becerra’s three-run homer, the exclamation point on a 15-run night that featured 15 hits from a lineup that has now outscored opponents 177–44 through sixteen games.
Sam Cozart continued his freshman emergence on the mound. The midweek starter entered at 3–0 with a 1.38 ERA and kept rolling — improving to 4–0 with enough length to keep the bullpen fresh for the weekend. Walker, Grubbs, and Higgins each threw an inning in relief, the kind of workload management that matters when Ole Miss arrives at Disch-Falk in 72 hours.
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sam Cozart(W (4-0)) | 5.0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| Ethan Walker | 2.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Max Grubbs | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Cal Higgins | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
While Texas was handling business in San Marcos, the rest of the SEC was getting punched in the mouth by mid-major opponents. The results paint a conference that is not nearly as ready for opening weekend as three weeks of curated scheduling suggested.
Tennessee 2, Tennessee Tech 20. That is not a typo. The Volunteers gave up twenty runs to an in-state OVC program. Tennessee entered the week at 7–4 with questions about whether Tony Vitello’s team could find a gear before SEC play. The answer, apparently, is no — they still haven’t found the clutch.
Auburn 2, UAB 17. Another blowout, another SEC team with a 9–2 record entering the night that suddenly looks fragile. Fifteen runs of separation against a Conference USA program that was supposed to be a routine midweek tune-up.
Vanderbilt 6, Indiana State 14. The Commodores gave up 14 runs to a Missouri Valley team. Vanderbilt opens at home against LSU on Friday. If the pitching staff that showed up Tuesday is the one that shows up against Jay Johnson’s lineup, it will be a long weekend in Nashville.
LSU lost to Creighton 4–8. Alabama fell to Troy 3–7. Mississippi State dropped one to Tulane 7–11. Kentucky lost to Ball State 3–10. Missouri lost to Southern Indiana 6–14. Florida lost to Florida State 3–6 in a rivalry game that at least carries real weight. Nine SEC programs lost on Tuesday night. Texas won 15–4. The gap between the Longhorns and the rest of the conference — at least on this particular Tuesday — was not subtle.
Sixteen-and-oh means nothing if it doesn’t translate to SEC weekends. That caveat has been true since game one and it remains true after game sixteen. But the depth chart is answering every question asked of it — and the questions are getting harder. Borba’s two-homer night, Becerra’s ninth-inning bomb, Pack’s continued power production from the middle of the order, Cozart’s quiet climb to 4–0 as the midweek starter. This is not a lineup that relies on one bat or a pitching staff that leans on one arm.
The lineup flexibility wasn’t in the preseason blueprint. Borba was a role player. Becerra was a question mark after the transfer. Livingston and Duplantier were depth pieces. All four contributed RBI tonight. The roster is deeper than it was supposed to be, and the Tuesday-night results across the SEC suggest the conference Texas is about to enter is not as fearsome as three weeks of home-field scheduling made it look.
Ole Miss arrives at Disch-Falk in three days. The Rebels have been inconsistent — in and out of the Top 25, looking for an identity that three weeks of non-conference play haven’t provided. Texas has an identity. It was built across sixteen games, five run-rule wins, a 133-run differential, and a Tuesday night in someone else’s ballpark where they hung 15 on the board without breaking a sweat. The foundation has been poured. Thursday night tells us whether the concrete has set.
“Nine SEC teams lost Tuesday night. Texas won 15–4. The gap was not subtle.”
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