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Texas handles Missouri, secures 17th SEC win behind another elite Dylan Volantis outing

by: Evan Vieth05/15/26

Entering tonight’s games, the SEC Pitcher of the Year award was a heated contest between Texas ace Dylan Volantis and Florida stud Aidan King.

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After tonight, there’s no longer a debate.

The two star pitchers entered the game with nearly identical stats. A .06 separation in ERA, with Volantis topping the SEC at 2.13. Volantis had one fewer start thanks to the A&M rainout, but had 17 more Ks with just five more walks. Still, King had the argument with a better WHIP and opponent batting average.

But as Dylan Volantis exited the game in the seventh inning of tonight’s eventual 6-3 win, every SEC baseball fan knew, the award was his.

While King struggled against LSU despite starting the game up six runs in Baton Rouge tonight, Volantis was an absolute star.

7 IP
2 H
1 ER
11 K – 1 BB (1 HBP)

“I feel really good. I felt super effortless today,” Volantis said. “I didn’t even realize I had 90+ pitches. “

Funnily enough for the sophomore lefty, one of the two hits and the only run came on the first batter of the game, a leadoff shot before most fans were even in the stadium.

“Solo shots happen, just gotta laugh that one off,” Volantis joked. “I kept moving forward and kept throwing strikes, and no more home runs are here.”

From there, Volantis saw 24 more batters; just three reached base.

Volantis’ ERA dropped to 2.05 on the season, and he lowered his WHIP below one.

King, on the other hand, gave up eight hits on four earned runs in 5 1/3 IP, striking out *only* seven batters.

His ERA rose to 2.50 on the year, closing the book on the SEC Pitcher of the Year race. Texas would end the regular season having won all but one Volantis start.

“(It was) a really good sign for us that he was able to go out there and mix his pitches and be his normal self,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said.”

The bats weren’t electric the same way they were against Tennessee on Sunday, but the team consistently found itself moving the line throughout the game, just struggling to knock them in outside of two sack flies in the first five innings.

But that all changed when Casey Borba stepped up in the bottom of the sixth with no outs and a runner on:

“I think confidence, there’s just a different feeling, you just pump yourself up more, the self-talk that you have in the dugout. When things are going bad, it can be hard to have that same self-talk, so you just gotta get back to your routines and the mental game,” Borba said. “You have to tell yourself that you’re the best hitter and no one can beat you.”

Finally, the Longhorns had their big hit, extending the lead to three before Anthony Pack knocked in Carson Tinney with two outs in the inning, taking advantage of a two-out error from former Longhorn Donovan Jordan in RF.

As a whole, the offense did well to reach base throughout the game, mixing in a combined 14 hits and walks, but left nine on base.

“I thought throughout the course of the game, we had a lot of really good at bats. We had some bad ones, but we had some really good at bats that didn’t produce a lot of runs,” Schlossnagle said, noting hard-hit sacrifice flies from Aiden Robbins and Ethan Mendoza.

Still, Texas saw major swings from the likes of Carson Tinney, who hit the insurance homerun in the eighth, Anthony Pack and Borba, while the likes of Ashton Larson and Adrian Rodriguez found themselves on base for most of the night.

Possible the only negative of the night, outside of the left on base numbers, was Haiden Leffew’s outing, giving up four hits and two earned runs in relief of Volantis.

Not to worry, though, Brett Crossland got out of the two-out jam and Sam Cozart shut the door with a three K save in the ninth.

With Texas A&M’s loss, the Longhorns move into sole possession of second place in the SEC, and the win today likely locked them into the coveted top 8 national seed. A series win would confirm it.

But for now the Longhorns can sleep easy knowing that, heading into the postseason, they have a freak of nature ready to take the mound. The best pitcher in the SEC, and maybe the country.

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