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After what Texas baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle called “my most disappointing loss of the season,” several team leaders spoke in the locker room after Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Florida Gators. The topic? Competing better.
Texas catcher Ryalan Galvan, shortstop Jalin Flores, first baseman Kimble Schuessler, pitcher Dre Deplantier and right fielder Max Belyeu spoke with the team after the Longhorns dropped their fifth of the last six conference games. No. 1 (for now) Texas is now in danger of falling out of first place in the SEC with just a week left in the regular season.
“We just addressed the elephant in the room,” Galvan said after the game. “This was embarrassing. It is what it is. We gotta attack the upcoming week. We had a chance to clinch the SEC championship at home in front of the fans who’ve supported us, on Mother’s Day, on Senior Day, and obviously didn’t get it done. We didn’t play to the standard we wanted to.”
Schlossnagle agreed.
“This is my most disappointing loss of the season,” the first year Longhorns coach said. “Senior Day at home, playing for a [SEC regular-season] championship, and tip your cap to [Florida pitcher Aidan] King. I mean, maybe that was the reason, but we’ll find out. Just really disappointed in this one.”
Schlossnagle benched center fielder Will Gasparino in the fifth inning. This is the second time Gasparino has been benched this week. Schlossnagle wouldn’t disclose the reasoning. “Just internal,” he said. “He’ll be fine. He’s fine. He’ll be back out there Friday [at Oklahoma], for sure.”
“I don’t take out anger or frustration on the team. My job is to call a spade to spade. I don’t like to meet with teams after games. Normally, I only meet with them when we lost a tough one or just to kind of recenter the team a little bit, but today was a little different,” Schlossnagle said.
Texas’ season seemed like a runaway freight train before getting swept by Arkansas last weekend. The Longhorns, so considered the best team in the nation, was still ranked No. 1 even after the sweep to the Razorbacks. But after dropping two of three to the Gators, Texas will most assuredly fall from the top spot.
The weekend will probably be most remembered for Jonah Williams Friday night antics, but there are more concerning signs. UT dropped the opener against Florida 8-2, Texas’ third blowout loss of the week. The Horns stopped the bleeding in a 5-2 win on Saturday. But Sunday, the offense was MIA again. The Longhorns have scored two or fewer runs in four of their past six SEC games.
“We’ve got to be more competitive through the lineup. Adrian Rodriguez is out there playing with a freaking really banged up hand and he can take a swing and feel like his hand’s gonna fall off and get hit a line drive to the wall in center field off great pitcher. We need more guys like that,” Schlossnagle said.
Texas will finish the season with a series next weekend in Norman against the Oklahoma Sooners.
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