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Aiden Robbins' stadium-shaking slam sparks Texas Baseball to a Regional victory, defeating UCSB 6-4.

by: Evan Vieth06/01/26

Pandemonium is the only word that can describe the sixth and seventh innings of the Austin Regional Final between Texas and UC Santa Barbara.

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The Longhorns, clinging to a one-run lead, hooked starter Ruger Riojas lingering on the bench because of a long and successful top of the sixth for Texas, seeing the Longhorns take the lead.

But disaster soon struck.

Reliever Haiden Leffew walked the first two batters, and two errors on a bunt from the next batter when Brett Crossland relieved the lefty gave UCSB a one-run lead as both runners scored. Thomas Burns shut the door on the rally, but Texas trailed once again, 3-2.

Casey Borba, the only true slumping bat in the Texas lineup in regional play, began the seventh with a base hit, the spark Texas needed.

With the top of the order behind him, speedy CF Dariyan Pendergrass had one assignment: move Borba over with a bunt.

And when he laid the 2-1 pitch down, it seemed as if he’d done just that, and much more. The throw went errant, and by the time the pandemonium had commenced, Pendergrass was on third and Borba had scored. Tie game, and UFCU Disch-Falk Field was going wild.

But as the umpires convened and a review occurred, Pendergrass was deemed out of the basepaths, altering the throw. By rule, he was out, and Borba had to return to first base as if the bunt never happened.

The fans were irate, and it felt like a gut punch to a team that had just dealt with a pair of haymakers the half inning prior.

In stepped Aiden Robbins, Texas’s star CF, who had yet to leave his mark on this game to that point. With the crowd still seeing red towards the umpire crew, Robbins worked a 3-1 count, stepped in and did this:

It was one of the loudest crowd reactions you’ll ever hear at the Disch, both when the ball landed and when Robbins rounded third base, jumping for joy and waving his hands up and down to energize the crowd. Texas had a lead, and it would never lose it.


“It was pretty crazy, to be honest, because we thought we had scored a run there, got a guy on third, so I thought my job was a lot easier than it ended up being,” Robbins said. “So I just stayed calm, kind of just did what I do, took my breath, and I hadn’t seen the fastball yet, so I was really just waiting for it. He kind of ran it into my barrel and I put a perfect swing on it. The energy kind of flowed through me, and I wanted to just express that a little bit.”

The Longhorns took down UCSB 6-4 to win the Austin Regional, but that was far from the final theatrics of this ballgame.

While Riojas was the best pitcher today for Texas, allowing just a solo homer in five innings pitched for his first real start in three weeks, Burns was the man who came up clutch for Texas when they needed it most.

His two outs after the disastrous bunt kept the game from getting out of hand, and a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the seventh set closer Sam Cozart up well for a six-out save.

Texas would add two runs of insurance in the eighth thanks to an Ethan Mendoza RBI double and some unconventional base running that led to another run, and they would be needed.

Cozart, who entered the game with a 1.59 ERA, allowed three hits and a run, one that would’ve tied the game if not for Mendoza.

Thankfully for Cozart and Texas, the Gauchos ran themselves into an out on the bases with first and third and one out, and what would’ve been a ball four to the batter was popped up on a 3-1 count and into the secure glove of LF Anthony Pack.

Texas escaped the eighth inning, and though Cozart would allow a leadoff single followed by a deep fly to right field that stayed in the yard, putting runners at the corners with no outs. Winning run at the plate.

Cozart would strike out the next batter on a 3-2 count, then force a pop-up to the No. 9 hitter. With the top of the order back up, Cozart made a costly mistake hitting the batter.

With the bases loaded, out came Schlossnagle, and in came a familiar mustached face: starter Luke Harrison.

Harrison, who had started the first game of the regional on Friday, was tasked with getting the final out on Rowan Kelly, UCSB’s best hitter, who had yet to be retired on the day, with the bases fully loaded.

Clinging to that two-run lead, Harrison attacked and forced Kelly to pop an 0-1 pitch up to shallow left field. Back tracked SS Adrian Rodriguez, and Texas had secured the Austin Regional win.

“That was the situation, you can call it save the world, but my job was to get one out,” Harrison said. “I knew that I had to go do my job, make some pitches. Coach told me he believed in me. I appreciate him giving me the ball there.”

The victory gives the Longhorns a sweep in the Austin Regional, the first time Texas has advanced to the Super Regional round since 2023, and the first time Texas has won an Austin Regional since 2022.

Austin hasn’t hosted a Super since 2021, when the Longhorns beat USF 2-0 and advanced to the College World Series semifinals, losing to Mississippi State.

The Longhorns will await the result of the Eugene Regional, as the winner between Oregon and Oregon State will make their way to Austin next weekend for the Austin Super Regional.

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