Despite the season opening loss to Louisville and the disappointment of how it went down, the sun came up on Saturday morning and the Longhorns would get to play baseball again.  The next game is always the most important game and Texas would need to play well to get in the win column against new SEC mate, Ole Miss.  

Not only were they facing a good baseball team, but they had “The Curse” of losing 8 straight at Globe Life Field weighing down on their shoulders.  Would they ever get a W at Globe Life?  The best thing to do when you face adversity is to roll your sleeves up and get to work and that’s exactly what the Longhorns did.

Fueled by an outstanding pitching performance from Junior LHP Luke Harrison, the Longhorns posted their first shutout of the 2025 season. Harrison pitched 6.1 innings, only giving up 2 hits and 1 freep ass.  Commanding a great mix of fastball and slider, he would end the night with 6 Ks, 5 flyouts and 7 groundball outs.

It was a slow start for the Texas offense.  Only 10 Longhorn hitters saw at bats through the first 3 frames. 6 of those struck out and 5 of them were swinging.  Texas’ first hit of the game came in the 2^nd inning but was spoiled by a pickoff at first.  It was starting to look like the Texas bats would struggle again, but then the 4^th inning arrived.

Texas would send 13 batters to the plate in the bottom of the 4^th inning, amassing 6 hits and plating 7 runs to blow the game wide open in Globe Life.  Freshman phenom, Adrian Rodriguez got the festivities started with a leadoff double. He advanced to 3^rd on Jalin Flores’ Texas leaguer into shallow left center.  After a Flores stolen base, Max Belyeu would knock in Texas first run of the game with an RBI single.  After an at bat where he spoiled 5 pitches, Will Gasparino would follow up with a 2 run double off the left field fence that stretched the lead to 3.  Not to be out done, Catcher Rylan Galvan would then add a 2 RBI double of his own and the lead was5.  A Kimble Schuessler double sandwiched between 2 walks would leave the Rebels in a 7-0 hole headed into the 5^th.  

Luke Harrison would cruise through the 5^th and 6^th innings, facing only 7 Ole Miss batters.  After a quick groundball out, a walk and a hit batsman in the Top of the 7^th, Harrison would turn the ball over to BIG, right-handed Sophomore Thomas Burns.  Burns, standing 6-3 and 230lbs, would get 2 groundball outs to end the Rebel threat.

The bottom of the 7^th was starting to look a lot like the bottom of the 4^thfor the Texas offense when Ethan Mendoza laced a line drive into left field to run rule the Rebels.  The inning got started with a Jalin Flores hit by pitch followed by a Max Belyeu 2 run knock into the Texas bullpen.  Gasparino would triple and score the game’s final run on Mendoza’s single to left field.  

The Longhorns had done it!  They finally won a game in Globe Life Field.  0-8 is over and “The Curse” has been lifted…for now.  Texas takes on former Big 12 Conference rival and #17 Oklahoma State tonight at6:30pm CST.  It’s a rubber match for both teams, sitting 1-1 at the Shriners Children’s College Showdown.