27 Runs. One Hit Allowed by Volantis.The Opening Statement.
Texas swept UC Davis 27-7 behind a rotation that posted a 0.75 WHIP, a lineup that drew 25 walks in three games, and a Sunday starter who carried a no-hit bid into the sixth. Volantis earned SEC Co-Pitcher of the Week. Now comes Lamar on Tuesday and Michigan State — fresh off an upset series at No. 8 Louisville — for Weekend 2.
Texas walked out of Opening Weekend 3-0, outscoring UC Davis 27-7, and doing it with two traits that usually age well: strike-throwing starters and a lineup that refused to chase early-count outs. If Week 1 is about establishing a baseline, this one was loud.
The Longhorns posted 25 walks against 19 strikeouts, hit .330 as a team, and opened the year with an on-base percentage north of .460. The rotation set the tone — 0.75 starter WHIP across 17.1 innings — and the offense repeatedly turned “one run” innings into “four run” innings.
Three different games, three different shapes, one consistent identity. That’s the takeaway worth holding.
Game 1: Texas 12, UC Davis 2
7 inn · 10-run rule| 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 |
The opener looked like a normal feel-out game until it didn’t. UC Davis grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first, Riojas settled and dominated the middle innings (6 K in 5.0 IP on just 78 pitches), and then Texas detonated: a three-spot in the third on Robbins’ 450-foot HR and Rodriguez’s RBI single, a four-run fifth built on walks and small ball, and a five-run seventh capped by Mendoza’s walk-off three-run blast to trigger the run rule.
Pack Jr. went 3-for-4 with 2 RBI and a stolen base from the nine-hole. Texas hit .367, drew 7 walks, and committed zero errors.
Game 2: Texas 6, UC Davis 4
Saturday · Feb 14| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Davis | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 1 |
| Texas | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | 6 | 8 | 1 |
This one required real work. UC Davis hung a deuce in the first off Harrison and Texas spent four innings punching air — trailing 2-0 through four complete. Harrison kept dealing despite the deficit: 90 pitches, 6 strikeouts, and enough composure to keep his team within striking distance. The bullpen would need to be good. The offense would need to be better.
The fifth inning flipped everything. Mendoza crushed a game-tying two-run homer — 417 feet, 108 mph off the bat — and the air at Disch-Falk shifted from patient to predatory. A sacrifice fly, then an aggressive double-steal sequence that manufactured an extra run, and suddenly Texas led 4-2. They tacked on two more in the sixth. The deficit was gone.
“You do not need three hits in an inning if you are willing to accept two walks and a sacrifice fly. That fifth inning was the weekend’s micro-thesis in action.”
The bullpen chain held. Burns came in and struck out four in 1.2 innings of hitless relief. Higgins worked through a two-run eighth — UC Davis made him earn it with a pair of walks and an RBI single — but he struck out three to limit the damage. Hamilton inherited two runners in the ninth, threw five pitches, and struck out the final batter to collect the save.
Texas drew 9 walks against 8 strikeouts. Nine free bases in a game you trailed 2-0 — that’s how a lineup erases a deficit without needing to string together five singles.
Texas Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke Harrison(W (1-0)) | 5.1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 90 |
| Thomas Burns | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 27 |
| Jack Higgins | 1.2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 40 |
| Hudson Hamilton(SV (1)) | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Game 3: Texas 9, UC Davis 1
Sunday · Feb 15| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Davis | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| Texas | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 9 | 11 | 3 |
Sunday was the ceiling game. If Friday was the proof of concept and Saturday was the stress test, Volantis turned Sunday into a statement of dominance: 7.0 innings, 1 hit, 0 earned runs, 8 strikeouts on 78 pitches. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning, retired 14 of his first 16 batters, and threw with the efficiency of a pitcher who knew exactly what he wanted to do and did it.
The offense didn’t wait. A single run in the second put Texas on the board, and then the third inning detonated: 11 batters came to the plate, six runs scored, and the game was functionally over before Volantis had broken a sweat. Rodriguez’s bases-clearing double was the blow that broke it open — a line drive into the right-center gap that emptied the bases and silenced any remaining competitive tension.
Michael Winter closed it out with two scoreless innings in his collegiate debut. Two strikeouts, one hit, no nerves. That’s a freshman pitching in a game that was already won, but doing it cleanly still matters — it tells the coaching staff they have another arm they can trust.
Shared with Oklahoma’s Cord Rager and Florida’s Cash Strayer. Volantis’ no-hit bid into the sixth was the weekend’s cleanest pitching sentence across the SEC.
Texas Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Volantis(W (1-0)) | 7.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 78 |
| Michael Winter | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | — |
Week 1 Performers
.500 BA, 1.563 OPS — authored the biggest swing in two of three games
No-hitter into the 6th. Retired 14 of first 16. Conference weekly honors.
Constant traffic from the bottom of the order — kept turning it over for the top
450-foot debut HR over YETI Yard. Impacted every game with power and legs.
Two of the highest-leverage at-bats all weekend — both converted
Worked through a 2-0 deficit and kept the game winnable for the offense
What This Series Actually Told Us
1. Free Bases Were a Feature, Not a Fluke
Texas drew 7 walks in the opener, then doubled down with 9 on Saturday and 9 more on Sunday. Twenty-five walks in three games, and it matters because it compresses variance. You don’t need three hits in an inning when you’re willing to accept two walks and a sacrifice fly. The lineup has no soft spot — 1 through 9, every at-bat was competitive — and that OBP (.460+) is the kind of baseline that holds up against better pitching.
2. The Rotation Is Set: Riojas–Harrison–Volantis
Across three starts, Texas got 17.1 innings, 9 hits, 4 walks, and 23 strikeouts. That 0.75 starter WHIP isn’t small-sample hype — it’s a real foundation. Riojas showed he can handle the Friday spot (settled after a rocky first, dominant middle innings). Harrison proved the Saturday role (worked through a 2-0 deficit, kept the game winnable). Volantis was the weekend’s cleanest sentence. Each starter handed the bullpen clean innings. That’s the structure you build an SEC schedule around.
3. The Portal Additions Are Real
Robbins from Notre Dame: .455 with a HR, 4 RBI, and 2 stolen bases. Becerra from Stanford: a quiet, settled presence at third. Tinney drew walks behind Robbins — the lineup protection was already working by Game 1. Larson contributed an RBI double in Saturday’s comeback. 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.
4. Bullpen Depth Is Elite
Burns threw 4 K in hitless Saturday relief. Higgins worked through pressure and struck out 3. Hamilton closed the door with a 5-pitch save. Winter debuted with 2 scoreless. Grubbs induced a double play in the opener. That’s five arms behind the rotation who can all hold a lead, and none of them looked like they were reaching. When your starters are efficient enough to let the bullpen stay fresh, and your bullpen is deep enough to handle the rare high-stress handoff, the pitching staff is built correctly.
Texas did what an elite team is supposed to do in Week 1: dominate the controllables, bank three wins, and reveal a clear identity. The walk edge, the starter WHIP, the 1-through-9 production — these are repeatable traits, not small-sample noise.
One cleanup item: four errors across three games, including three in the Sunday finale. The good news is the pitching and walk volume created enough margin that it never became a story. The better news is that this is usually fixable in February and March — not a roster-level limitation.
Now the calendar starts asking harder questions. Tuesday’s Lamar game is about maintaining standards. Weekend 2 against Michigan State is about validating them.
Lamar at No. 3 Texas
What Lamar Is Bringing to Austin
Lamar opened 2-1, splitting a home series against Oakland — wins of 8-2 and 9-7 before a 3-2 loss in 10 innings. The WAC program out of Beaumont received Baseball America preseason national attention and plays with a profile you’d expect from a capable midweek opponent: they can score in chunks and are comfortable playing close late.
In Lamar’s opener, Beau Durbin’s two-run double and Tab Tracy’s two-RBI single turned the second inning into a separator. That’s the kind of damage Texas’ midweek arm needs to prevent.
Keys for Texas
Keep the walk edge. Week 1’s plate discipline is a repeatable advantage in midweeks, where pitching plans are usually thinner.
Win the first pitch. Lamar’s best path is early-count damage. If Texas’ staff gets strike one, it forces the game into Texas’ depth.
Play clean. Midweeks are where extra outs become cheap runs. Routine plays, clean defense — the errors from Sunday need to stay in Sunday.
Michigan State at No. 3 Texas
What Michigan State Just Did at Louisville
The Spartans took a road series from No. 8 Louisville, going 2-1. This is not a team that’s going to blink at Disch-Falk.
It was Michigan State’s first series win at Louisville since 1993. Louisville dropped from No. 8 to No. 15 — their first home opening series loss since 2011. Coach Jake Boss Jr., now in his 18th season at MSU, sent a message: the Spartans are capable of beating ranked teams on the road.
Spartans to Watch
Series Keys for Texas
Start fast offensively. Michigan State has already shown it can win on the road. Turning Disch into a factor early matters — don’t let the Spartans settle into the rhythm they found at Louisville.
Protect the strike zone. The Spartans’ power plays if you give them free baserunners. Texas’ best version is simple: strike one, expand later. The 0.75 starter WHIP needs to hold.
Convert leverage at-bats. Texas created traffic all weekend. Against a better opponent, the separator is two-out execution, not total hits. The walks set the table — now the lineup needs to clear it.
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