The Cycle, The Shutout, The Statement.
Texas swept Michigan State 15-2 behind Robbins’ cycle — the first by a Longhorn in eleven years — a Volantis shutout with a career-high 9 K, and a pitching staff that allowed two total runs in three games. The Spartans came in with a Louisville series win on their resume. It didn’t matter. Now comes Coastal Carolina and the first off-site test of the season.
Michigan State walked into Disch-Falk with a Louisville series win on their resume — the first Spartan series victory in Louisville since 1993. They left with two total runs across three games. The pitching staff struck out 32 batters in 27 innings. The offense manufactured 15 runs without needing a single crooked-number inning. This was a team that controlled every phase of every game.
The headline moment was Robbins’ cycle on Saturday — the first by a Longhorn since CJ Hinojosa against Kansas State on April 18, 2015. But the structural takeaway lives in the pitching: 1.53 staff ERA, 0.86 WHIP, and a rotation that has thrown 14 straight scoreless innings on Sundays through Dylan Volantis.
Two weekends down, two sweeps banked, and the identity keeps sharpening. The question is no longer whether this team is good. It’s whether the schedule will reveal the ceiling.
Game 1: Texas 8, Michigan State 1
Friday · Feb 20| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Texas | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | X | 8 | 11 | 0 |
Riojas set the tone in the first inning and never let it drift. Ten strikeouts in six innings of work, with the command to match the stuff. Michigan State managed three hits and one earned run, and even that felt like a concession rather than a crack. The line read like an ace’s calling card: 6.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 10 K.
Mendoza drove the offense. Three-for-four with two extra-base hits, two RBI, and his third home run in five games to open the season. That’s not a hot streak. That’s a hitter operating at a different level than his opponent — a .462 average through the first week and a half with power to all fields. Texas scored in four of the first six innings, turning a 2-0 lead into an 8-1 rout. Borba’s two-run shot in the fifth and Pack Jr.’s solo blast in the sixth capped the damage.
Winter, Crossland, and Walls combined for three scoreless innings of relief, striking out four. The pen hasn’t allowed a run in this series — 9.2 IP, 0 ER from the bullpen across all three games.
Texas Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ruger Riojas(W (2-0)) | 6.0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 10 | — |
| Michael Winter | 1.0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — |
| Brett Crossland | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | — |
| Brody Walls | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | — |
Game 2: Texas 3, Michigan State 1
Saturday · Feb 21| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| Texas | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 3 | 8 | 0 |
This was the pitching duel. Harrison battled through 4.1 innings — four hits, one unearned run — before handing the ball to a bullpen that slammed the door. Michigan State got their run in the third on a sequence that required an error to score; Harrison’s line read 0 ER despite allowing the traffic. Schlossnagle pulled him before the fifth was over, Leffew bridged the gap, and the decision paid off immediately.
The offense operated with surgical economy: three runs on eight hits, no wasted at-bats. But the story of this game belonged to one man across four plate appearances, each one different than the last.
Single up the middle in the first that drove in the game’s first Texas run. Triple down the right-field line in the third. Double to left center in the sixth. Then the solo home run in the eighth to complete it — a no-doubt pull shot down the right-field line. Two RBI on the day, both on swings that mattered.
The last Longhorn to hit for the cycle was CJ Hinojosa against Kansas State on April 18, 2015 — eleven years ago. Robbins, the Notre Dame transfer, needed five games to announce himself with the 450-foot HR in Week 1. He needed seven to write himself into the program’s record book.
Grubbs came in and threw three scoreless innings to earn the win — Harrison didn’t qualify at 4.1 IP, but the bullpen made it irrelevant. Grubbs didn’t allow a hit and struck out two. Burns closed with a scoreless ninth, striking out three, to collect the save. The bullpen chain has been airtight through two weekends — hand the middle innings to Grubbs, hand the ninth to Burns, game over.
Texas Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Luke Harrison | 4.1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | — |
| Haiden Leffew | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | — |
| Max Grubbs(W (1-0)) | 3.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | — |
| Thomas Burns(SV (1)) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | — |
Game 3: Texas 4, Michigan State 0
Sunday · Feb 22| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan State | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Texas | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 4 | 9 | 0 |
Volantis threw the first complete-team shutout of the season. Seven innings, five hits, zero earned runs, nine strikeouts — a new career high, surpassing the eight he put up in the UC Davis Sunday start a week earlier. Michigan State put runners on more than they did against Riojas or the pen, but Volantis stranded all of them. Through two weekends as a starter: 14 innings pitched, 0 earned runs, 17 strikeouts, 2 walks. The former closer who saved 12 games with a 1.94 ERA as a freshman is pitching like a front-of-the-rotation arm in his second career start.
Texas scored two in the first and never looked back. Williams drove in the game’s first run in the bottom of the first, and the lead grew to 4-0 by the fourth. The offense didn’t need to be explosive. Volantis only needed four runs because he wasn’t giving any back.
Crossland threw a clean eighth, then Burns struck out two in a scoreless ninth. The Sunday pitching formula — Volantis into the pen — hasn’t allowed an earned run through two weekends.
Texas Pitching
| Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | K | P |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Volantis(W (2-0)) | 7.0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 9 | — |
| Brett Crossland | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — |
| Thomas Burns | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | — |
Week 2 Performers
First Longhorn to hit for the cycle since CJ Hinojosa in 2015. Eleven years between cycles.
Third home run in five games. The lineup protection behind Robbins keeps compounding.
Back-to-back dominant Sundays. 14 IP, 0 ER, 17 K through two weekends. The closer-to-starter conversion is real.
From 5.61 ERA last season to dominant through two Friday starts. Ten strikeouts in six innings against a team that took a series at Louisville. The transformation is structural, not small-sample.
Sees more pitches per AB than anyone in the lineup. Protection that doesn’t show up in batting average.
Drove in the game’s first run in the bottom of the first. Quiet production that matters.
Season Stats — 7-0
Through seven games, the run differential is 56-13 (+43). Texas has outscored opponents by more than four runs per game on average, and the pitching staff hasn’t allowed more than four runs in any single contest.
Individual Leaders
Michigan State came in with Louisville series credibility — 2-1 at a Top 10 program, the kind of result that earns respect on the road. Texas allowed two total runs. The Spartans’ Week 1 strength didn’t transfer because Texas’ pitching didn’t give them the fastballs to drive or the free bases to manufacture.
The pitching narratives that matter most are the ones that compound. Riojas’ transformation — 5.61 ERA in 2025 to 19 K in 11 IP through two Fridays, including 10 K against MSU — is structural, not streaky. Volantis’ closer-to-starter conversion — 14 IP, 0 ER, 17 K on Sundays — is the kind of development that reshapes a rotation’s ceiling. Harrison had a shorter Saturday (4.1 IP), but the bullpen erased any concern: Grubbs threw 3.0 scoreless for the win, Burns closed for the save. The depth covered the one start that wasn’t dominant.
The lineup doesn’t have a hole. Mendoza is hitting .462 with 3 HR. Tinney is tied for sixth nationally in walks. Robbins just hit for the cycle. The offense doesn’t need to be explosive because the pitching doesn’t force it to be.
But the schedule is about to start asking real questions. Two weekends of home games against overmatched opponents is a foundation, not a verdict. Friday night at Daikin Park — No. 11 Coastal Carolina, Preseason National Player of the Year Cameron Flukey, a 2025 national runner-up program — is the first pitch that will tell Texas something about itself.
UTRGV at No. 3 Texas
What UTRGV Is Bringing to Austin
UTRGV is 3-4, and the record undersells the fight. They beat Kansas in their season opener — 7-4 in front of a sellout 5,862 — then went to Houston and took two of three from the Cougars. That included an 8-run rally in Game 2 and a 6-run ninth-inning comeback in Game 3 to steal the series. This is a team that can score in bunches when they get hot, and they’ve already proven they won’t fold on the road against Power 4 opponents.
The flipside: they lost to Texas Tech 21-12, which means they can bleed runs too. Thomas Williams is the key bat. Cienfuegos is the arm to watch. Texas should control this game, but UTRGV has earned the right not to be dismissed.
Keys for Texas
Midweek pitching depth. Use the Tuesday game to get reps for arms outside the weekend rotation. The Bruce Bolt Classic is four days away — manage the workload.
Don’t let them get comfortable. UTRGV’s Houston series showed they can rally late. Score early, play clean, close the door before momentum shifts.
Stay sharp defensively. The lineup will hit. The question is whether the defense stays clean in a game where the concentration can slip.
Bruce Bolt College Classic
Texas Schedule
Matchup Analysis
Friday: No. 11 Coastal Carolina — The Measuring Stick
This is the game that matters. Coastal Carolina went 56-14 last season as the national runner-up, and Cameron Flukey — the Preseason National Player of the Year — gives them a legitimate ace. Texas has faced UC Davis and Michigan State. Coastal is the first opponent with top-tier pedigree and a frontline arm. Riojas vs. Flukey on a Friday night at a neutral site in Houston is the kind of matchup that tells you where both programs actually stand. Everything before this was prologue.
Saturday: Baylor — The Rivalry Factor
In-state games carry their own weight regardless of rankings. Baylor won’t bring Coastal’s national profile, but the familiarity and recruiting overlap add a layer that doesn’t show up in the box score preview. Harrison gets the ball on Saturday. His MSU start was shorter than the staff’s standard (4.1 IP), but the bullpen depth means Schlossnagle can be aggressive with the hook. The Bears will compete. Whether they can sustain it against this lineup is the question.
Sunday: Ohio State — Most Manageable
Ohio State rounds out the weekend. Of the three opponents, this should be the most straightforward matchup for Volantis and the Sunday pitching formula. But “should be” is a dangerous phrase three games into a neutral-site tournament — fatigue, travel, and the unfamiliar ballpark all apply. Treat it like a close game until it isn’t one.
Also in the Field
What to Watch For
Friday night is the real test. Coastal Carolina with Flukey on the mound is the first opponent that can match Texas pitch-for-pitch. How Riojas handles a lineup that went to the CWS finals last year defines the weekend.
First road-adjacent games of the season. Two weekends at Disch-Falk built the foundation. Daikin Park in Houston is neutral ground. The crowd advantage disappears. The identity has to travel.
Workload management. Three games in three days at a neutral site with a Tuesday game beforehand. Bullpen depth matters more this weekend than any point so far. Burns, Grubbs, Crossland, and Winter all need to be available and sharp across three nights.
Go Deeper
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