Dylan Volantis made his first career SEC start look easy Sunday afternoon, and the Texas bats backed him up in a big way. The No. 2 Longhorns closed out their opening conference series with an 8-2 victory over Ole Miss at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, improving to 18-1 on the year and 2-1 in SEC play.
Volantis was sharp from the jump, working six innings of one-run ball while setting a new career high with 11 strikeouts. The southpaw fanned multiple hitters in four of the first five frames and blew through the Ole Miss lineup in order in the fifth. He allowed just five hits and one walk across a career-high 102 pitches before handing things over to the bullpen.
Freshman Sam Cozart took it from there, finishing off the final three innings to earn his first career save. The right-hander gave up one unearned run but was otherwise dominant, striking out five of the last eight batters he faced.
The Longhorns wasted no time getting on the board. Carson Tinney launched a mammoth 465-foot blast in the first inning, clearing the 32-foot wall in center field to give Texas a 2-0 lead. The catcher finished 3-for-4 with three RBI on the day, adding an RBI single in the sixth to put the game further out of reach.
Casey Borba kept the power coming in the fourth, sending a 419-foot shot over the YETI Yard in left for his fourth home run of the week. The junior’s two-run blast pushed the lead to 5-0 and capped a six-run burst before the fifth inning was even complete. Borba also notched his fourth multi-hit game in his last five outings.
Ole Miss answered with a run in the fifth on a Judd Utermark single and added an unearned run in the seventh off a defensive miscue, but Volantis and Cozart made sure those were the only blemishes on an otherwise dominant performance.
Texas returns to action Tuesday when it hosts Tarleton State to close out a four-game homestand. First pitch at UFCU Disch-Falk Field is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.
