Texas baseball coaching legend Augie Garrido should have had those words inscribed on his tombstone because history bears the receipts.
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Each time the Texas Longhorns advanced to the College World Series — they made it to four straight, from 2002 to 2005 — he would open the CWS pre-tournament presser by emphasizing the most important job description of a UT baseball coach: get to Omaha.
Texas Longhorns catcher Carson Tinney (8) holds up the Super Regional Championship trophy after winning game two of the NCAA Baseball Super Regional against Oregon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Sunday, June 7, 2026 in Austin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Eight years after a personal favorite left our midst, the Longhorns will play in a record 39th CWS when they open Saturday with Georgia. It will be their first CWS under second-year coach Jim Schlossnagle, who paid homage to Garrido in the moments following the Horns’ 6-5 win Sunday to sweep past the Oregon Ducks in dramatic fashion at raucous UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
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“Seventeen years ago, I was my first super regional on this field and I remember how that felt to lose,” Schlossnagle said. “Then, of course, we won the next one, but I miss him and feel his presence all the time.”
After missing out on the CWS in his first three years at the helm, Garrido led Texas to eight Omaha trips over his final 17 seasons, to a pair of national titles in 2002 and 2005 and four appearances in the championship series. The ability to consistently finish in the top eight is what attracted UT athletic director Chris Del Conte to his former TCU charge when he plucked Schloss from Texas A&M’s mourning grasp after the Aggies had falled to Tennessee in the 2025 title game.
This is the eighth team Schloss has led to the College World Series since 2010 and aside from his final A&M team — his only group to make it to the final weekend — this could provide his best chance to break through and finally win one.
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He most certainly has a fan in Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski, who sounded as if the Horns should be playing the New Yankees this weekend instead of the Georgia Bulldogs.
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“I don’t know how many major-leaguers they have in that order, but it’s a ridiculous lineup,” he said of the Texas bats.
And what about the pitching?
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“Those guys can pitch in the major leagues tonight,” he said. “When you’re sitting in the dugout and your hitters are watching that, you don’t sit there as a coach and just go, ‘Hey, guys, you know, this is going to be easy.’ Those are major-league arms. They can pitch in the big leagues tonight.”
From left, Texas Longhorns infielder Callum Early (36), pitcher Ruger Riojas (13) and pitcher Sam Cozart (35) celebrates winning game two of the NCAA Baseball Super Regional against Oregon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Sunday, June 7, 2026 in Austin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Why the Horns can make noise in the Omaha
Niceties aside, don’t expect Georgia to read Wasikowski’s comments and take the first train back to Athens, especially after the Bulldogs scored 24 runs in a wild two-game super regionals sweep of Mississippi State. The Dawgs will give the Horns everything they can handle, but it won’t be an easy task, especially if Texas displays the clutch gene we witnessed in their final home game.
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Nothing is an automatic in the super regionals and the Horns were facing a Game 3 reality after the Ducks took a 5-4 lead in the seventh inning Sunday. Shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, who has endured one of the most physically painful seasons of any Horn, slapped a two-run double into the left field corner to erase the deficit and burly closer Sam Cozart, who was roughed up for five hits in 1⅔ innings of the Austin Regional win over UC Santa Barbara, bounced back to sit six consecutive Ducks, four via strikeouts, to punch Texas’ first Omaha ticket since 2022.
The Horns are as good as anybody in this field. Dylan Volantis is a filthy left-hander while Cozart is the program’s most prolific freshman closer since Huston Street, whose four saves delivered Garrido’s first title here. Aiden Robbins, Carson Tinney, freshman Anthony Pack, Jr. and the scorching Rodriguez rival any top half of the order in the country.
Texas Longhorns infielder Adrian Rodriguez (24) celebrates a hit for a double during game two of the NCAA Baseball Super Regional against Oregon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Sunday, June 7, 2026 in Austin.
Aaron E. Martinez/Austin American-Statesman
Also, the absence of top overall seeds UCLA and Georgia Tech along with first-time party crashers West Virginia and Troy brings some extra spice to the CWS proceedings. You never know what can happen during this fortnight because sometimes a team can come out of nowhere and shock the world. Take the 2008 Fresno State Bulldogs, for instance. They entered the WAC Tournament at 33-27 and needed to win it just to make the NCAA tourney field. They beat 10 ranked teams over the last month of the season and went 6-0 in elimination games before taking down Georgia for the program’s first baseball natty.
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Are Horns unstoppable at this point?
The team that beats the Horns — if that team exists — will have to impose its will on Texas’ middle relievers, that is if it can figure out a way to get a Texas starter out of there inside the first five innings. Volantis is the head of the snake and if the Bulldogs can beat him, I doubt the Horns will be around much longer.
“You’re going to need to beat a lot of big leaguers in order to beat Texas,” Wasikowski said. “If you can do that, then credit to you, because you did a great job by beating major-league pitching.”
They aren’t unbeatable, but they get clutch play from a variety of sources and aren’t offensively dependent on one guy. It’s possible to still win if Volantis struggles because of the bats, but it’s not a scenario they want to visit.
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All told, this why Schloss was brought in here. To get No. 7.
“Thirty-eight (CWS appearances) has been sitting there for a while,” Schlossnagle said. “So I’m glad we’ll be able to change to 39.”