The Texas Longhorns and the Oregon Ducks survived their respective regionals on a weekend that had some startling upsets. From here on out, however, there are no patsies and no pushovers. Every pitch, every bat, every run, and every out counts. What, then, are we getting this coming weekend when Texas hosts Oregon in Austin? Let’s take a peek, shall we?
Texas Longhorns
- 43-13 (19-10 SEC, 2nd)
- RPI #5
- DSR 5th
Texas is making their sixth consecutive NCAA tournament appearance. They were last in the CWS in 2021 and 2022. After a horrible postseason
outing in 2024, where they lost their regional, they fired their previous coach, David Pierce. Texas hired Jim Schlossnagle from Texas A&M, and in his second year Schlossnagle has an 87-27 (.753) record going into this year’s Super Regional.
The Longhorns finished second in the SEC. Curiously, they lost their first game of the SEC tournament to #7 Arkansas, 8-1 – a flameout that bears eerie similarities to Oregon’s dismal Big Ten tournament appearance.
Also, like Oregon, Texas came storming back in their regional, sweeping Holy Cross 19-1 and Tarleton State 16-2, before rallying in the late innings to beat UC Santa Barbara, 6-4.
The Longhorns have three pitching starters that they principally rely on. Season stats are as follows:
Dylan Volantis 1.94 ERA WHIP 0.9386
Ruger Riojas 3.86 ERA WHIP 1.0857
Luke Harrison 4.36 ERA WHIP 1.2746
Volantis is especially dangerous on the mound, but Riojas and Harrison are good pitchers as well.
In the bullpen, 12 players have pitched 11.1 to 47.0 innings, with an average ERA of 5.25.
On offense, Texas has six batters hitting .304+, with 429 RBIs and 99 HR (72 from four batters). Their top three batters are:
Anthony Pack, Jr. .358/.602 SLG%/.476 OBP
Aiden Robbins .347/.721 SLG%/.435 OBP
Carson Tinney .333/.711 SLG%/.487 OBP
Throughout the regional, Texas outscored its opponents, 41-7. As a club, the Longhorns batted .376/.493/.761 with 12 home runs. On the mound, Texas posted a 2.00 ERA in its three-game sweep. When you overpower weak teams, you’ll get those kinds of stats.
I thought it would be more constructive to look at their game against UCSB, which – as we know in Eugene – is a very good baseball school.
On the hill, starter Ruger Riojas pitched 5 innings with 3 hits, 1 run, 6Ks, and 1 BB for a 1.80 ERA (the scorecard did not provide an adjusted ERA, so the adjusted ERA is probably higher). The bullpen pitched a 6.75 ERA, with 4Ks and 2BB against 20 batters.
On offense against UCSB, Texas had 11 hits, and 6 runs with 1 HR. The lineup was struck out 9 times and walked 3 times. They were led by Aiden Robbins, who went 2-5 with 2 RBIs, and hit Texas’ only HR in the game.
Oregon Ducks
- 43-16 (20-10 Big-10, 3rd)
- RPI #15
- DSR 14th
The Ducks also swept their regional, winning 14-2 over Yale, 4-0 over Washington State, and 4-1 over Oregon State. By way of comparison, I looked at stats for Oregon’s most difficult opponent, which was Oregon State. Before we do that, here are the season stats for the Ducks:
Oregon has three starters that they have principally relied upon. (I have included Cal Scolari because he has also started. We may see a start from him, but I think the Ducks will have him situationally positioned in the bullpen. Thus, he is included in the overall bullpen stats.)
The Ducks starters are:
Will Sanford 3.46 ERA/WHIP 1.1471
Miles Gosztola 3.61 ERA/WHIP 1.2400
Collin Clarke 4.60 ERA/WHIP 1.1958
(Cal Scolari 2.70 ERA/WHIP 1.337)
In the bullpen, 9 players have pitched 11.1 to 53.1 innings, with an average ERA of 4.56.
On offense, Oregon has five batters hitting .307+, with 398 RBIs and 104 HR, 65 of which are spread fairly evenly among five batters. Their top three batters are:
Ryan Cooney .335/.531 SLG%/.424 OBP
Drew Smith .332/.595 SLG%/.411 OBP
Brayden Jaksa .320/.544 SLG%/.398 OBP
By way of comparison to Texas/UCSB, here are Oregon’s stats vs. their most difficult opponent of their regional, Oregon State:
Starter Miles Gosztola pitched 6.0 innings, with 5 hits and 1 run for an ERA of 1.50 (scorecard says 3.61, but the Texas/UCSB game did not have ERA in their scorecard, so I am comparing apples to apples. Same with the bullpen).
The Ducks bullpen pitched a 0.00 ERA, with 6Ks and 0BB against 11 batters (scorecard gives Ducks bullpen a 3.56 ERA – still better than the Longhorns bullpen performance against UCSB).
The Oregon offense was led by Ryan Cooney, who went 1-4 for a .335 average with 1 RBI.
The makeup of the Texas/UCSB and Oregon/OSU games could not have been more dissimilar. While the Longhorns rallied to a win with their bats, the Ducks benefited from an anomalous pitching breakdown on the part of the Beavers bullpen. Regardless, it’s still an interesting comparison.
Texas and Oregon are two teams that appear to be matched up similarly, and this should be a challenging weekend for both teams. I think that pitching is the key to who goes to the CWS. Offensively, these teams look even to me. Pitching will be the game within the games in Austin.
Can Oregon survive and be competitive against Texas’ starters, especially Dylan Volantis? They need to not let games get away from them. The Ducks starters are pitching well, but it’s been the bullpen that, more often than not, has been lock-down – especially last weekend. Oregon has the best bullpen that they’ve had in recent memory, which is not something that Duck baseball fans are used to.
At this point in the season, pitching advances your team; be it Texas or Oregon. Whoever wins the pitching battle will advance to Omaha.
Game 1: Saturday, June 6th, 5:00 pm PT on ESPN
Game 2: Sunday, June 7th at 6:00 pm PT on ESPN
