Texas enters final SEC regular-season series as a flawed contender

With no midweek game, Mendoza has some extra time to recover after senior Jayden Duplantier and sophomore Callum Early filled in for him at second base in Knoxville. Duplantier went 0-for-7 against Tennessee and Early only has four at bats this season, so getting Mendoza back into the field as quickly as possible is a high priority for a Texas team that still lacks ideal depth.

“If he can play the field, that helps. If he can’t, as long as he can, DH, well, a right-handed hitting DH has been an issue for us,” Schlossnagle said.

Pitching coach Max Weiner also pushed back the start of senior right-hander Ruger Riojas from Saturday to Sunday with Schlossnagle citing soreness. Managing the health of Riojas has been a huge priority for Schlossnagle and Weiner this season and there are signs that he’s been flagging down the stretch.

After seven starts, Riojas had a 1.59 ERA and was vaulting up draft boards behind a deep arsenal of pitches highlighted by a fastball with improved velocity. In those seven starts, Riojas only gave up more than one run a single time, conceding three runs on six hits in 4.1 innings against Ole Miss. But in the last six starts for Riojas, as he’s gotten deeper into conference play, he’s given up four or more runs four times, sending his ERA up to 4.04.

Riojas did have impressive performances against Alabama and Mississippi State, including 11 strikeouts in the win over the Crimson Tide, and those are the type of efforts that the Horns need from Riojas to make a postseason run.

A lingering, disclosed injury is the persistently problematic left hand of sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez. When Rodriguez underwent a procedure to removal a staple from the hand that was causing an allergic reaction, Schlossnagle remained unsure whether the real A-Rod would show up this year. With Rodriguez limited to batting left handed and his average at .270, that remains unlikely, although there was a flash of it on Sunday when Rodriguez went 3-for-4 with a three-run home run, only his third of the season.

The heartening element for Rodriguez, in addition to a show of power that’s been rare since the injury? The home run coming against a left-handed pitcher, a matchup Rodriguez has struggled with when he can’t bat right-handed.

The newest injury to a starting position player is the wrist injury freshman left fielder Anthony Pack Jr. sustained recently lifting weights. Pack didn’t start in last week’s midweek win over UTSA and went 0-for-4 on Friday before bouncing back by going 5-for-8 over the final two days, including hitting a double and a home run on Sunday.

“Pack wasn’t even close to 100 percent the first night or two, and then yesterday, he felt pretty close to normal,” Schlossnagle said on Monday.

The team is also battling undisclosed injuries to position players that they are battling through, significant and widespread enough for Schlossnagle to label it a big concern for the Horns over the weekend.

In trying to put together the best lineup possible, Schlossnagle is short on options after sophomore outfielder Jonah Williams underwent season-ending surgery, highlighting a depth issue precipitated last summer when transfer outfielders Jack Moroknek and Kaleb Freeman both signed following the 2025 MLB Draft.

“Either somebody’s got to get better at the bottom of the lineup or we’ve got to change personnel. We don’t have that many options — pretty much every option other than [Dariyan] Pendergrass, we’ve already tried long term, and Pendergrass, his thing has just been, can you get on the field and stay on the field?” Schlossnagle said.

That means that some players already in the lineup need to step up like redshirt senior third baseman Temo Becerra and junior first baseman Casey Borba did over the weekend.

“We’ve just got to maximize our offense as best we can. But I like to dream on the team and say, well, Temo is in a good spot. Borba had a somewhat productive — certainly had a great day yesterday — but had a somewhat productive weekend,” Schlossnagle said.

Becerra has 16 hits in the last six games, a stretch during which he’s raised his batting average from .277 to .326 and, on Saturday, he hit his first home run since early March.

Borba hasn’t been as hot, but he is in the midst of a power surge with three home runs over the last two games, including a big grand slam on Sunday.

But can the Horns get anything from freshman center fielder Maddox Monsour beyond good defense and aggressive base running? The Georgia product is now batting .185 after going 0-for-9 in Knoxville. The first step is making contact — Monsour struck out seven times against Tennessee.

For Texas, the team’s health may set the ceiling for this year’s group as the rankings indicate that the Horns are a contender, but some recent results point towards a flawed one with a limited margin of error in the postseason.