For first-year Texas Longhorns pitching coach Max Weiner in 2025, the most impressive aspect of producing the sixth-best ERA nationally was how little margin Weiner had to accomplish that excellence.
Without many overpowering fastballs on the pitching staff, the Longhorns had to dominate the zone by largely pitching backwards with the five reliable arms that Weiner had — Luke Harrison, Ruger Riojas, Max Grubbs, Jared Spencer, and Dylan Volantis combined to pitch 300 of the 514.2 innings thrown by Texas
last year, almost 60 percent of the total.
In every SEC weekend series, the Horns had a narrow pathway to victory if every pitcher executed their role successfully. But that pathway narrow even further when Spencer, the Friday starter, went down with a season-ending shoulder injury. After Riojas went from the fireman long relief role to the Friday starter, he caught the flu, which turned into bronchitis and led to the rock bottom of the Wimberly product’s baseball career as he lost 20 pounds and velocity on his pitches as a result.
By the Florida series in early May, Riojas was only able to record one out against Florida in allowing six runs on three hits and four walks.
For Weiner and the Longhorns, the margin had evaporated into the hot Central Texas air and Texas was eliminated from the Austin Regional by UTSA.
And so although Spencer was out of eligibility, the other three veteran pitchers had a sense of unfinished business and collectively decided to return to the Forty Acres to cap their college careers.
“Those guys wanted to be here,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said on Wednesday.
“They were the three most important recruits we could possibly have, to get those guys back for their last year, and that really gives us some space to allow the younger guys to develop. Not many better pitchers in the transfer portal than those guys, so getting those guys back to Texas is like getting a great transfer.”
When Texas opens the season against UC-Davis at UFCU Disch-Falk Field this weekend, the three returnees will start each game — Riojas on Friday, Harrison on Saturday, and Volantis on Sunday.
Like several other pitchers, Riojas remained in Austin to develop his body after the season ended. At 6’0, the UTSA transfer isn’t the biggest presence on the mound, increasing the importance of his strength and conditioning. To that end, Riojas is now at 205 pounds, 10 pounds heavier than he was listed last season before his illness, and has seen an increase in his fastball velocity.
The fastball is one of four pitches he throws from a high arm slot, including a slider, cutter, and splitter. From a lower arm slot, Riojas throws a sinker, slider, changeup, and curveball, putting pressure on on his ability to repeat his mechanics from both arm slots, something that he credits to his background as a position player.
“I think it takes a lot of athleticism. I credit playing middle infield and outfield my entire life to being able to adjust to these arm slots,” Riojas said on Wednesday. “And then it’s really just seeing those shapes on both ends and kind of defining them in your own way. You can go through the lineup over and over and over again, because a batter might not see all the pitches.”
When Riojas was at his best as a starter, he pitched 5.2 scoreless innings in the win over Texas A&M in late April, lowering his season era to 2.98 before his illness robbed him of his effectiveness — of the 45 runs allowed by Riojas in 2025, 27 of them came in his last four starts after he got sick, ballooning his ERA to 5.61.
Schlossnagle credits the self-awareness of Riojas for his ability to bounce back from adversity without lingering effects.
“He’s just being who he is. Away from the field, he’s super consistent as a human being. You’ve got a great combination of humility and confidence. So he has the humility to recognize that, or be self aware enough to know that there are things he has to get better at, and he goes to work on them like he did all summer with his body and in the fall with his pitches with Max. But he still has the confidence that one game or one stretch doesn’t define his career, and that he’s also getting better,” Schlossnagle said.
A left-hander who bounced back from Tommy John surgery after the 2022 season, Harrison kept pushing to improve under the new coaching staff after he struggled in his return from injury in 2024, becoming the team’s most consistent starter in 2025, making a team-best 15 starts while notching a 5-1 mark with 3.06 ERA and totaling 24 walks and 72 strikeouts over a team-high 70.2 innings.
Harrison was able to increase his fastball velocity into the low 90s to make it more playable and added a cutter to be able to pitch in on the hands of right-handed batters and a curveball to complement his slider, which become more effective working in tandem with his cutter, coming out in a similar plane with similar arm speed.
Like Harrison, Grubbs benefited from adding effective pitches to his arsenal under Weiner to post a 6-2 mark with 2.84 ERA and five saves with 14 walks and 61 strikeouts over 57 innings. A sinker-slider pitcher over his first two seasons on the Forty Aces, Grubbs took the next step in his development as a long reliever by introducing a cutter and a split-finger pitch to his repertoire.
Volantis is also developing a changeup as he moves from his closer role into the starting rotation to explore his upside after a sensational freshman season that saw him earn the Baseball America National Freshman of the Year award and first-team All-America recognition from four publications.
A younger returning player who should find a role on the staff is sophomore Jason Flores, who drew praise from Schlossnagle earlier this week for his improved maturity and work habits from his freshman season, when he showed promise with a 4-2 record and 2.78 ERA with five starts over 14 appearances. Flores was hard to hit, holding opponents to a .205 batting average. If the 6’1, 240-pounder doesn’t earn a role on the weekend, he’ll be a valuable asset during midweek games.
Last month, second baseman Ethan Mendoza picked redshirt senior right-hander Cody Howard as a pitcher who could surprise. The Baylor transfer struggled with his command last year, but has the pure stuff to get hitters out — opponents only batted .196 against him in 2025.
Also returning are junior left-hander Kade Bing, a midweek starter for the Longhorns in his first season on the Forty Acres, junior right-hander Hudson Hamilton, who earned two midweek saves as a sophomore, and redshirt junior left-hander Ethan Walker, a soft-tossing southpaw who was able to get through 4.1 innings in his start against Tennessee in the SEC Tournament.
Expected to move into the closer role is 6’3, 230-pound junior right-hander Thomas Burns, a starter at Arizona State in his freshman season before experiencing some ups and downs as a reliever in his first season on the Forty Acres.
With a fastball that can reach triple digits, Burns has considerable upside that was limited last season by his lack of command, never more evident than in a bad appearance against Arkansas in which he allowed five runs over 1.1 innings despite only giving up two hits because he walked five batters.
But new starting catcher Carson Tinney believes that Burns will be the breakout star on the staff because of his mental maturity.
“Just his ability to control himself and his mind, I think is elite and probably the best I’ve ever seen,” Tinney said.
Burns also added a splitter he’s throwing instead of a changeup because he can throw it from the same arm slot as his fastball and has better command with it.
Is he going to be the closer, though?
“We’re all just a bunch of savage out-getters,” Burns said with a smile.
