Texas baseball: Longhorns keep Ruger Riojas' workload light in Mississippi State loss

For Texas and Mississippi State's baseball teams, what ended as a 7-4 win for the Bulldogs on Saturday started as a pitching duel.

Through the first five innings at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Texas and Mississippi State were locked in a 1-1 tie. Mississippi State's Duke Stone had allowed five hits but struck out five Longhorns. Ruger Riojas had allowed just three baserunners for UT.

Then both teams went to the bullpen.

When Mississippi State made its pitching change, Stone was at 86 pitches. A sophomore, Stone also hadn't worked a perfect inning that afternoon.

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But what about Riojas? The senior right-hander had only thrown 71 pitches, which was 34 less than his season-high total on March 26. Riojas had also been relatively efficient and was coming off a fifth inning in which he retired the side.

After the game, UT coach Jim Schlossnagle said that Riojas was not injured. Texas simply wanted to manage his workload with the postseason on the horizon. 

"We're trying to not ride him too much as we get towards the end of the regular season so that he has something left in the postseason," Schlossnagle said. "I thought he was in a good spot and liked the matchup with (reliever Brett) Crossland."

Ruger Riojas pitches well after short stint at Vanderbilt

Riojas has not reached the sixth inning in four of his last five starts, and he was pulled after issuing a leadoff walk in the sixth inning of a game at Texas A&M on April 10. Three of his early exits were due to an ineffective performance on the mound, and he threw 99 pitches over last month's five-inning start against Alabama. Last week at Vanderbilt, Riojas allowed eight hits and five runs over his three-inning shift.

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So Saturday marked a bounce-back performance for Riojas. He gave up a solo homer to Jacob Parker in the fourth frame, but a first-inning double and a third-inning single was the only additional damage that he allowed. Riojas struck out seven of the 18 Bulldogs that he faced, and he did not issue a single walk.

"I thought he was more crisp," Schlossnagle said. "Good fastball. He had a good split going today. I thought he did a great job against a really good offense."

Riojas opened this season as UT's Friday starter, but he shifted into a Saturday role two weeks ago. After his no-decision against Mississippi State, Riojas is 5-2 with a 3.71 ERA and a team-leading 96 strikeouts. 

Riojas has also pitched 60 2/3 innings over his 12 starts this spring. Primarily used out of the bullpen during his first two years of college at UTSA, Riojas logged 69 innings last season while working at Texas as both a reliever and starter.

After Ruger Riojas exits, Mississippi State gets to the Texas bullpen

Crossland struck out the side in the sixth inning, but he ran into trouble in the seventh inning when he hit two batters before leaving the game with two outs. Thomas Burns got within a strike of getting Texas out of the jam, but he gave up an RBI single to Kevin Milewski after the Longhorns called for an ill-fated mound visit with the No. 8 batter in the Mississippi State lineup facing a 1-2 count.

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Burns later served up a three-run homer to Drew Wyers in the seventh inning. Mississippi State (36-11, 14-9) scored two more runs with Jason Flores and Brody Walls on the mound in the eighth inning.

Texas attempted a late comeback in the ninth inning but fell short. But despite the loss, Texas (34-10, 14-8) climbed into a second-place tie in the SEC standings since Texas A&M (34-10, 14-8) was beaten twice by Auburn on Saturday. Georgia leads the way in the SEC with a 17-6 showing in conference games.