How Jim Schlossnagle overcame 'Satans of college baseball' perception to build Texas staff
In a 6-2 victory over LSU on Sunday, two pitchers who weren't wearing burnt orange last season delivered nine sparkling innings of work for the Texas baseball team.
Ruger Riojas, a UTSA transfer, and freshman Dylan Volantis teamed up to stifle a Tigers lineup that came into the weekend having scored the fourth-most runs in the country. Both were offseason commitments secured by first-year coach Jim Schlossnagle and his pitching coach, Max Weiner, after they moved to Austin from Texas A&M on June 25 last year.
The Texas pitching staff has gotten 64% of its innings so far this season from newcomers ‒ their commitments either secured or affirmed by Schlossnagle in a rushed process following his appointment and the blowback that came with crossing battle lines in the rivalry between the Longhorns 19-3, 5-1 SEC) and Aggies.
"It's not the scrap heap, but by the time we got here and then dealt with all of the social media stuff after the (college) world series, we were the Satans of college baseball," Schlossnagle said. "We had a lot to overcome, just because we made a career choice."
The Texas pitching staff isn't perfect, and it's not as complete as Schlossnagle would like it to be. He's explained more than once that he hasn't settled on a Sunday starter because he doesn't feel like his team has the depth on its staff to commit to one.
Still, the Longhorns' offseason overhaul is yielding results. Entering play this weekend, the Texas staff ranked ninth in the country with a 3.22 collective ERA. And additions like Volantis and Riojas have proven vital to that success.
Riojas gave the Longhorns four outstanding innings of relief in a loss to UTSA on Tuesday, then turned around and pitched 5⅔ innings of two-run ball against the Tigers (22-3, 4-2), bringing his ERA on the season to 3.81. Volantis ‒ the owner of a 1.29 ERA ‒ closed out victories for the Longhorns on Saturday and Sunday. He faced 15 LSU batters over the course of the weekend and retired 14 of them with seven strikeouts.
Neither possesses special velocity. But they both challenge the hitter with something unique ‒ which Schlossnagle said is what he values most in a pitcher.
Riojas can pump a wipeout slider into the zone for strikes. Volantis, at 6-foot-6, gives the opposition a release angle they rarely see.
"Coming from a 6-6, 6-7 release height, the ball's already going to be going down," Volantis explained postgame. "So when I throw a sinker, it's going to come on even quicker. It gets a lot of groundouts for sure. That's kind of my uniqueness."
The Longhorns owe their pitching success to a combination of talent identification and development. Saturday starter Luke Harrison, for instance, has lowered his ERA to 2.45 after pitching to a 9.28 mark in 13 appearances for Texas last season.
Weiner is regarded as one of the best pitching coaches at the collegiate level. Much of the progress he's made with the Longhorns has been mental, players say.
"It's just more self-confidence," Riojas said Sunday when asked to explain Weiner's impact on his game. "...We already know we're good enough to pitch here. That's why we're here. It's just having the confidence in yourself to be the best pitcher in the world when you're out there."
There's been a little bit of good fortune, too. Volantis didn't sign with the Athletics when they selected him in last year's MLB Draft because he wanted a college experience. Fellow stud freshman Jason Flores rejected overtures from the MLB, too, Schlossnagle said.
The Phillies chose Texas ace Jared Spencer in the 14th round of the draft. He could have chosen the professional route instead of undergoing the arduous process of transferring to Texas from Indiana State.
"What Spencer had to do to get here was phenomenal," Schlossnagle said. "It's really hard to get into Texas in your fourth year of college. He had to take a ton of summer classes, not because he's a bad student, but just to get enough hours. And while he's saying no to the draft. At any time, he could have said 'Yeah, I'll take my hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm not going to mess with this stuff. I don't feel like doing all that this summer.' And he did the work. And so having those guys come to school was huge."
Reach Texas Insider David Eckert via email at deckert@gannett.com. Follow the American-Statesman on Facebook and X for more. Your subscription makes work like this possible. Get access to all of our best content with this tremendous offer.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Rebuilt Texas baseball pitching staff comes up big vs LSU
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