Over the course of several days, the catcher position for the No. 3 Texas Longhorns went from a position of strength for head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team to a precarious situation.
First, promising freshman Presley Courville, who is 4-for-6 this season with double, an RBI, and a run scored, fell victim to the non-warning track at UFCU Disch-Falk Field during practice while working in the outfield, injuring his shoulder after crashing into the wall. During Tuesday’s run-rule victory against Houston
Christian, Courville was wearing a sling on his injured shoulder.
“This field is really tough on outfielders, and especially when you’re trying to figure out the outfield, and he kind of just jumped into fence and hurt his shoulder,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said after the game.
Courville is expected to miss a couple of weeks, according to Schlossnagle, a loss that impacts more than just the depth at catcher.
“Super unfortunate because he was really, really, really coming on, especially as a right-handed DH candidate. So those are things that happen in the season we’ll have to overcome,” Schlossnagle said.
But the depth at catcher is the immediate concern because it’s a position where unfortunate things are more likely to happen, like a slip in discipline keeping the throwing hand behind the back, which is exactly what happened to junior catcher Andrew Ermis against the Huskies when a foul tip caught him squarely on that throwing hand.
The initial prognosis from Schlossnagle was positive, as Ermis was able to finish the game, but even if there isn’t any structural damage, it’s still an injury that could linger for some time.
“He was able to hold the bat and he’s got a big knot on his hand. I think it’s probably just a bruise, but he’s pretty tough kid. I think he’ll be fine,” Schlossnagle said.
The junior college transfer was making his third consecutive Tuesday start for Texas as Schlossnagle and his staff try to manage the workload of junior catcher Carson Tinney, who is suddenly the only fully healthy catcher on the roster.
The hope is that Tinney stays healthy, Ermis isn’t dealing with anything more serious than a bruise, and Courville returns sometime this month, but it doesn’t take a Texas baseball historian to recall the last time something approaching a worst-case scenario struck the catcher position on the Forty Acres.
That was in 2019 when a lingering shoulder issue for starter DJ Petrinsky turned out to be a torn labrum that required season-ending surgery in March. With Petrinsky out, veteran Michael McCann was thrust into the starting role, only to suffer a series of knocks that included a foul tip off his throwing hand in a non-conference series against Stanford. With McCann out, freshman Caston Peter injured his thumb on a bunt attempt, forcing head coach David Pierce to request a waiver from the NCAA to bring Turner Gauntt back onto the roster after he was cut from the team before the season.
The entire group ended up struggling at the plate as the Horns slogged through a 27-27 season that set the floor for what the Pierce era could look like.
