The Longhorns swung the bats well enough to win. Their pitching staff made sure they didn’t.
No. 2 Texas dropped the series opener to No. 18 Texas A&M, 9-8, at Blue Bell Park on Friday night, surrendering five unanswered runs after taking a lead into the middle innings. Despite launching four home runs and bringing the tying run to the dish in the ninth, the Longhorns’ bullpen unraveled at the worst possible time, handing the Aggies a victory in a roller-coaster affair that featured six lead changes.
Left-hander Haiden Leffew (2-1) absorbed the loss in one of the more frustrating pitching lines of the season, yielding two runs without surrendering a single hit. The Aggies simply walked their way into trouble against the junior, who issued three free passes that Texas A&M converted into runs. It’s the kind of damage that doesn’t show up in the hit column but absolutely shows up on the scoreboard.
The bullpen’s collapse in the sixth proved decisive. After Carson Tinney’s two-run blast, his fifth homer in just 11 at-bats and 12th of the season, gave Texas a 6-4 edge, the Longhorn relief corps allowed five unanswered runs, including a three-run sixth inning that flipped the momentum entirely and for good. Texas A&M’s Clayton Freshcorn then slammed the door shut, retiring the final nine batters he faced to earn his seventh save of the year.
The offensive effort from Texas (27-6, 9-4 SEC) was genuinely impressive and ultimately wasted. Aiden Robbins delivered a standout performance with a multi-homer night, a go-ahead two-run shot in the fifth and a towering 421-foot solo blast in the ninth that marked his team-leading 13th home run of the season, surpassing his entire two-year output at Seton Hall. Freshman Anthony Pack Jr. kept the Longhorns’ hopes alive three pitches later, muscling a 377-foot shot to pull Texas within one. Pack Jr. finished the night reaching base three times and driving in two runs, including a sacrifice fly that broke a scoreless tie in the early innings.
But rallying from a five-run deficit against a locked-in Freshcorn proved one bridge too far. Four home runs and eight runs scored should win most college baseball games. On Friday night in College Station, the Texas bullpen ensured it wasn’t enough.
Texas (27-6, 9-4 SEC) will look to even the series Saturday afternoon, with first pitch scheduled for 2 p.m. The Longhorns need their pitching staff to match the energy their offense has consistently delivered, because the bats held up their end of the bargain Friday night.
