No. 19 Texas baseball (0-1, 0-0 SEC) kicked off the Jim Schlossnagle era with a tough one-run loss to the Louisville Cardinals (1-0, 0-0 ACC) in the Shriners Children's College Showdown at Globe Life Field. On Friday night, it looked like Texas had a shutout victory in the bag until the bottom of the ninth.
Texas baseball falls short of Louisville in season opener despite homers from Adrian Rodriguez and Will Gasparino
It all unraveled late in the bottom of the ninth inning for Texas. Louisville knocked in two runs on a single to knot the game up at 2-2 to send it to extras.
Texas was also two outs away from sealing the victory in the bottom of the 10th inning. But defensive and pitching miscues in the bottom of the 10th came back to bite the Longhorns. Louisville loaded up the bases after Andre Duplantier II hit a Cardinals batter just before the walk-off hit in the 10th inning.
Louisville walked it off in the bottom of the 10th inning with a 4-3 win over the Longhorns.
The game's first two runs were driven in by outfielder Will Gasparino to set the tone for Texas early in the game in the top of the second. Gasparino had a long home run to center field to get the Longhorns' first two runs of the 2025 season.
that's a BIG barrel for BIG Will 💪#HookEm | 💻: https://t.co/SAQq7hFBSV pic.twitter.com/IHdlyer68C
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 15, 2025
Gasparino had a hot bat for the Longhorns out of the gates last season, hitting for over a .300 batting average in the first month of his freshman campaign. He had a game-winning home run for the Longhorns in Big 12 play in late April last season against the Oklahoma Sooners.
Freshman Adrian Rodriguez also nearly gave the Longhorns the game-winning home run in the top of the 10th inning. Rodriguez hit a towering shot to right field that gave Texas a 3-2 lead in the top of the 10th.
ADRIAN. RODRIGUEZ. CLUTCH.#HookEm | @arod_2024 | 💻: https://t.co/SAQq7hFBSV pic.twitter.com/xHE3eR8XWt
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) February 15, 2025
Texas's younger bats, namely Rodriguez and Gasparino, put Texas in a position to get the season-opening victory against a major conference foe yesterday. Preseason All-SEC First-Teamer Max Belyeu also had a solid day at the plate, with two hits in five at-bats and one run scored.
A bit of good news for the Longhorns coming out of this devastating one-run loss to Louisville in extras was the performance of former Indiana State transfer and starting pitcher Jared Spencer. The tall 6-foot-3 left-hander pitched 5.2 shutout innings for the Longhorns, while striking out six Louisville batters and walking one.
Texas is looking to respond with a big matchup against an SEC foe in the second game in Arlington, TX, on Feb. 15 against the Ole Miss Rebels (1-0, 0-0 SEC).