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Tinney's grand slam propels Texas over UTSA in final midweek of the year

by: Evan Vieth05/06/26

In a game like college baseball, a simple mistake is sometimes all it takes to turn the tides of an intense game between teams separated by 80 miles.

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Entering the bottom of the eighth, UTSA lead No. 4 Texas 8-7, having blanketed the Longhorn offense for four straight innings.

With the 7-8-9 in the Texas order up, the Roadrunners had a chance to steal an inning and put all the pressure on Texas’ top of the order to win the game.

And it looked like they’d done so when Casey Borba popped up a 3-2 pitch, barely fair in front of the batters circle. But UTSA’s catcher never saw it, and it fell to the ground, out of the glove of releiver Sam Simmons.

The error clearly rattled Simmons, who would lose freshman Maddox Monsour after going up 2-2. Two on. A Presley Courville bunt would move two runners over, and one pitch into Aiden Robbins’ AB, with the leading run in scoring position, Simmons was out of the game.

In stepped Connor Kelley, one of UTSA’s best arms, and a releiver who pitched twice against Texas when UTSA took them down in last year’s Austin Regional. It was getting personal in Austin.

Kelley would immediatly struggle to find the zone, walking Robbins after four pitches, setting up Texas’ star C (who was DHing on the day) Carson Tinney with the bases loaded.

Tinney was cold up to that point; 1 for his last 15, to be exact, but was the exact player you wanted up in the situation. A power threat, Texas’ best threat to walk in a run, and an elite veteran hitter.

Kelley got ahead early, earning a strike on the outside corner. He aimed for the same spot on 0-1, but was just low.

The Texas broadcast, knowing the moment taking place, flashed onto the screen the scenes from a week prior, where Tinney hit a walk-off three run homer to take down Sam Houston.

Kelley tried one more time to sneak a fastball on the outside, but this one got too much plate, up and more inside than before.

Tinney was ready to break out of his slump.

A moonshot, destroyed to left-center field over the Yeti Yard.

“He’s talented. He’s obviously super talented, and he’s comfortable in his own skin. He’s gotten comfortable playing at Texas,” Texas head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “That took a little bit of time, I think, in the first month or so of the season, where he’s probably put a lot of pressure on himself to to live up to outside influences. That’s part of being a great players. You have to learn how to handle those things, and he’s done a great job of that.”

It was Texas’ longest homer of the year, 483 feet way out of the stadium, and Texas led by three with the grand slam.

“I knew that the fastball was his pitch. That was the pitch he trusted,” Tinney said. “I hunted the fastball, and he left one up. I got my barrell.”

That was all the Longhorns needed, as Thomas Burns shut the door on the stunned Roadrunners, giving Texas the win in the final midweek game of the season, 11-8.

“It’s a great rivalry. We greatly respect UTSA and Coach Hallmark and everything they do. We don’t think of them any less than any SEC school,” Schlossnagle said. “They have a really good program with really, really good players, and we’ll probably see them again, I would imagine.”

Revenge isn’t quite the accurate term for a game like this, but deep down Texas players, and clearly the fans, remembered how their season ended 12 months ago at the hands of UTSA.

While this is only a midweek win, the Roadrunners threw many of its best weekend bullpen arms, and the players, crowd and coaches were into this game from start to finish. It didn’t feel like your average midweek game, because it wasn’t.

Tinney was the hero, but Texas had a few other names stand out, but not the household ones you might’ve thought of.

Maddox Monsour hit his first homer of his career at Texas, a 434-foot slam to left-center, to tie the game in the third inning. The two teams had already combined for 14 runs by then.

But as Schlossnagle put it, Brody Walls was the story of this game.

“Brody was the story, because swings changed when he came in the game,” Schlossnagle said. “Brody was awesome when he came in the game. And I think their swings change. They have a really good team, competitive right, left handed hitters. They don’t swing and miss much, and they swing and missed against Brody, that tells you a lot. And so you know, he did a great job.”

Walls came into a 7-4 ballgame in the fifth, and was able to get out of a jam, forcing a double play to end the inning.

Monsour would tie the game in the bottom half, and Walls would just keep on working.

Three up, three down with two Ks in the sixth, and though he gave up a two-out run in the seventh, he was able to get the final out and go 1-2-3 in the eighth, sustaining a close game and limiting the UTSA bats to set up Tinney and Burns for the win.

His final line:

3 2/3 IP
1 H
1 ER
5 K, 1 BB

Texas finishes its season of midweeks at 9-2, one of the best marks in the country. After losing two straight against Tarleton State and Houston to begin the year, most fans would be shocked to hear they stayed perfect the rest of the way, beating strong in-state foes like UTSA and Texas State on the way.

The Longhorns move to 36-10 overall, and have a road trip against Tennessee to look forward to. A win, and you all but secure that coveted Top 8 National Seed.

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