It has been just over a week since Texas baseball’s season ended in the Austin regional.

Backed by a No. 2 overall seed and a Southeastern Conference regular season championship, the Longhorns were once hopeful that, at this point in the season, they would be practicing for the national championship series in Omaha.

But after falling to the Roadrunners twice to seal their fate, the once Omaha-hopeful team struggled to overcome its injury-riddled season.

At the height of these struggles sat senior pitcher Jared Spencer, who watched from the dugouts with his shoulder and arm held in a sling. The team’s ace had not seen the mound in over a month, with his last appearance for the Longhorns on April 17 before undergoing shoulder surgery.

“As a staff, we’re built for something like (losing Spencer),” redshirt junior pitcher Luke Harrison said after Spencer’s injury. “Obviously, losing your Friday night starter is something that will have an effect on everybody, but I think we’re built to handle that.”

While earning series wins against rivals Texas A&M and Oklahoma, the Texas bullpen inevitably struggled and dropped series against then-No. 11 Arkansas and Florida, before being eliminated by then-No. 21 Tennessee in the SEC Tournament Quarterfinals. 

With two weekend starters for the Austin Regional, junior pitcher Ruger Riojas and Harrison, the bullpen still struggled to dominate the zone. While Riojas pitched five scoreless across 7.1 innings in an elimination game versus Kansas State, it was Harrison who never found the rhythm in the initial UTSA game.

Harrison came in with a 5–1 pitching record, wins against ranked opponents Georgia and Auburn and a chance to book their spot in the regional final. However, he allowed four hits and five runs against the Roadrunners, sparking their comeback. Max Grubbs, a regular in the pitching rotation with a then-6–1 pitching record, couldn’t weather the storm, allowing two hits and two runs in the 1.1 innings pitched by the junior.

In the second game against the Roadrunners, head coach Jim Schlossnagle deployed Hudson Hamilton on the mound, but the sophomore only lasted an inning after allowing two runs and a hit. Needing to win to avoid elimination, redshirt sophomore Ethan Walker allowed four more runs and two hits, with Grubbs allowing UTSA’s seventh run in the 7–4 loss.

Clearly, Spencer’s inability to play had a much bigger effect on the bullpen and the team itself than what Texas had prepared for, despite being able to keep two out of three regular starters in the game.

“We didn’t underestimate (how big losing Spencer was),” Schlossnagle said after the Austin regional. “I knew going into the season that for us to have a great year, our best players had to stay healthy. To lose a marquee pitcher like that, given where we are in the program, it’s tough. I think we picked up slack as best as possible.”

Although Spencer missed the second half of the season, his success led to a rise in his Major League Baseball draft stock, according to Isaiah Burrows, a national scouting coordinator for Perfect Game.

“Overall, Spencer is a pure octane lefty who has transformed from a 14th-round reliever last year to arguably the best senior in college baseball as a Friday starter for the Texas Longhorns,” Burrows wrote in a scouting report.

Transferring from Indiana State, Spencer started in six SEC games, starting as the opening pitcher for the series. The Longhorns won all the series that Spencer starred in. Across the season, using his mix of pitches, he averaged a 3.27 ERA, only allowing 19 runs in 52.1 innings pitched. 

“Something we always preach about is having fun, and I mean from the beginning of the day to now,” Spencer said after game one of the Georgia series. “Enjoy while I’m out there, that’s kind of what I say to myself,  I’m walking out there talking to my glove, having fun and smiling.”