Texas 12, UC Davis 2Mendoza Walks It Off in Seven. The Horns Are Back.
Aiden Robbins announces himself with a 450-foot blast over YETI Yard. Anthony Pack Jr. catalyzes every rally from the nine-hole. And Ethan Mendoza puts a three-run exclamation point on the seventh to run-rule the Aggies and christen the 2026 campaign.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Davis | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 1 |
| Texas | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 11 | 0 |
There’s a thing that happens the first time a team takes the field in a new season — a half-breath between the last out of the old year and the first pitch of the new one — where everything is still theory. Preseason polls. Portal grades. Rotation projections. All of it lives on paper until somebody walks between the lines and proves it or burns it down. On a cool Friday evening at Disch-Falk, in front of the faithful who showed up early and stayed loud, the 2026 Texas Longhorns took roughly four and a half innings to move from theory to conviction.
And friend, once they got rolling, there wasn’t a soul in the press box reaching for the brakes.
The Third Inning: Where It Turned
Credit UC Davis — they came out swinging. Top of the first, Wooldridge drew a walk off Ruger Riojas, Howard singled him over, and Wright pushed a run across on a fielder’s choice. Just like that, the visitors had a 1-0 lead. Riojas settled. He sat down three of the next four he faced in the second, all on strikeouts, and after a clean third frame for UC Davis, he’d found his footing.
Anthony Pack Jr. led off the bottom of the third with a double ripped into the right-center gap. Mendoza grounded out to third, moving Pack to third. Then Adrian Rodriguez — the switch-hitting sophomore who slashed .313 as a freshman in the SEC — laced an RBI single through the left side. Ballgame tied.
“Rodriguez delivers, and that ball finds grass like it was always going to end up there. One-one ballgame. And now Robbins steps in — the Notre Dame transfer, the kid Schlossnagle went and got because he believed this lineup needed a presence in the three-hole.”
What happened next is the at-bat that will live in the first chapter of the Aiden Robbins story at Texas. He got a fastball middle-in, and he didn’t miss it. Two-run home run — 450 feet, over YETI Yard. Gone to left. The ball left the yard like it was late for something.
Texas 3, UC Davis 1. And the air at Disch-Falk changed from hopeful to hungry.
The Fifth: When the Dam Broke
If the third inning was the ignition, the fifth was the flood. Rodriguez reached on a UC Davis error at short. Robbins followed with an RBI double — his second extra-base hit of the night — and the score moved to 4-1. Tinney drew a walk. Then the wheels came off.
Mason Lerma came on in relief and immediately balked both runners up a base. Livingston drew a walk to load them. Borba struck out. Duplantier, pinch-hitting for Larson, K’d looking. Two outs, bases loaded. They didn’t escape.
Temo Becerra — the Stanford transfer — worked a full-count walk that pushed a run across. 5-1 Texas. Then Anthony Pack Jr. stepped back to the plate and dropped a two-run single into center field. 7-1. Pack stole second for good measure.
Rodriguez reached on E6. Robbins doubled home a run. Tinney walked. Balk advanced both runners. Livingston walked to load them. Two outs later, Becerra walked in a run, Pack singled home two more, and Texas had turned a 4-1 lead into a 7-1 demolition.
Grubbs Keeps the Door Shut
Max Grubbs — the senior right-hander from Arlington who posted a 2.84 ERA last season — took the ball in the sixth and did exactly what a veteran reliever is supposed to do: he kept the game boring. Lee singled. Wright singled. Castagnola flew out to left, and then Gentil hit into a 5-3 double play that ended the threat.
That’s what depth looks like. When your first reliever out of the pen is a senior with 50-plus innings of SEC experience and a groundball pitch that induces double plays on demand, the starters can pitch free and the bullpen can hold any lead.
UC Davis scratched one back in the seventh — Wooldridge doubled home a run to make it 7-2 — and for a half-heartbeat it looked like the Aggies might force the Longhorns to play a full nine.
The Seventh: Mendoza’s Punctuation
“Bottom of the seventh. Borba doubles. Duplantier singles him to third. A balk — UC Davis’s second of the night — pushes Borba home. 8-2. Becerra singles. 9-2. Pack singles again. And here comes Mendoza with the bases loaded, the run-rule in reach, and Disch-Falk on its feet...”
Max Hippensteel had barely had time to feel the mound under his spikes before Ethan Mendoza stepped in. Mendoza — the Southlake Carroll product with the best contact rate in the SEC — sat fastball and got one.
Three-run home run. Walk-off. Run-rule. Twelve to two. And the 2026 season opened the way the entire offseason promised it would: with a roster that is deeper, meaner, and more dangerous than anything Schlossnagle has fielded in Austin.
“That ball is hit deep to left... and I don’t believe — wait, yes I do. I absolutely believe it. Because this is exactly what this team was built to do. Mendoza clears the bases, the Longhorns mob him at the plate, and the first night of the new year ends the only way it could: with a bang.”
Key Performers
Walk-off ended game via run-rule
3 RBI in his Texas debut
3 hits, 2 RBI — catalyzed every rally
Tied the game in the 3rd
Quiet 2-RBI night from the 8-hole
Settled after rocky 1st, dominant middle innings
Full Box Score
Texas Batting
| Player | Pos | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethan Mendoza | 2B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
| Adrian Rodriguez | SS | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Aiden Robbins | CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Carson Tinney | 1B | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Jalin Livingston | LF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Casey Borba | DH | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Jared Duplantier | C | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Temo Becerra | 3B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Anthony Pack Jr. | RF | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Ashton Larson | PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 30 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 7 | 4 | |
UC Davis Batting
| Player | Pos | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chase Wooldridge | CF | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Tyler Howard | SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Mason Wright | DH | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Ryan Lee | 1B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nick Castagnola | LF | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jake Gentil | 2B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Max Nicholson | 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Brady Madsen | C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Cole Davis | RF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 28 | 2 | 7 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
Texas Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruger Riojas(W (1-0)) | 5.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 78 |
| Max Grubbs | 2.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 37 |
UC Davis Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noel Valdez(L (0-1)) | 4.0 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 85 |
| Mason Lerma | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 34 |
| Kouki Anzai | 1.0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 26 |
| Max Hippensteel | 0.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
What This Game Actually Told Us
1. The Lineup Is Relentless, Not Just Talented
There’s a difference between a lineup that has good hitters and a lineup that doesn’t let you breathe. This Texas lineup is the second thing. One through nine, every at-bat felt competitive. Robbins homered and doubled. Pack had three hits from the nine-hole. Becerra drove in two from the eight-spot. Mendoza walked it off from the leadoff position. When your table-setter is also your finisher, the lineup is circular — there’s no place to hide.
2. The Portal Additions Are Real
Robbins from Notre Dame: three RBI in his first game. Becerra from Stanford: two RBI and a presence at third that felt immediately settled. Tinney drew two walks behind Robbins — the lineup protection is already working. Schlossnagle didn’t just add names from the portal. He added fits. And the chemistry showed from the first inning on — no one looked like they were playing for a new team.
3. Riojas Can Handle the Friday Spot
The first inning was bumpy. A walk, two singles, a run. But the next four innings? Clean. Dominant. Riojas found his slider, located his fastball, and retired the side in order multiple times. Friday night starters in the SEC need two things: the ability to survive a bad inning without unraveling, and the ability to give the bullpen a clean handoff. Riojas did both tonight.
4. The Depth Behind the Starters Is Ridiculous
Grubbs came in, threw two innings, induced a double play, and handed the ball back. Dylan Volantis didn’t pitch because he didn’t need to. Luke Harrison didn’t pitch because he didn’t need to. Thomas Burns didn’t pitch because he didn’t need to. When your most dominant arms are preserved because your starter and first reliever handled a 12-2 game, the pitching staff is built correctly.
One game is one game. UC Davis is not Ole Miss, and February is not June. But the things you look for in an opener — energy, depth, competitive at-bats from all nine spots, a starter who recovered after adversity, a bullpen arm who shut the door — were all here. Every one of them.
Schlossnagle built this roster to compete for Omaha. What tonight showed is that the roster heard him, and they’re not interested in easing into it. Twelve runs in seven innings. Three extra-base hits. Zero errors. A walk-off three-run homer from the best contact hitter in the conference.
The runway is short. The schedule is unforgiving. And based on what happened tonight under the lights at Disch-Falk, that’s exactly how this team wants it.
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Game 2: Texas vs. UC Davis
Start time moved up from original schedule for weather. Texas leads the series 1-0. Sunday’s Game 3 TBD — Dylan Volantis (LHP, So.) the likely option.