Needing a big swing against Florida on Saturday afternoon, the Texas baseball team also received a historic one from junior Jalin Flores.
Flores hit a game-tying home run in the sixth inning of UT’s 5-2 win at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. With the three-run triumph, Texas snapped a four-game losing streak in SEC play and inched closer to a conference championship. Texas (40-9, 20-6) now enters the final four games of the regular season with a three-game lead in the SEC standings over second-place Arkansas (40-11, 17-9) and LSU (40-11, 17-9).
“(We) really needed it,” Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “When you’re playing well and winning games, you don’t feel like you can lose. When you have things snowball in the opposite direction, sometimes it’s super tough to win a ball game.”
Jalin Flores breaks tie with Kody Clemens in Texas record books
In his third at-bat of Saturday’s game, Flores launched the second pitch from new Florida reliever Jackson Barberi over the Yeti Yard in left field at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The 390-foot blast was the 13th home run this season for Flores, who led Texas in that statistical category last year.
With that solo shot, Flores broke a fifth-place tie with Kody Clemens on UT’s all-time home run chart. Flores, a third-year shortstop, has now homered 35 times in a Texas uniform. Only Kyle Russell (57 homers from 2006-08), Jeff Ontiveros (55 from 1999-2002), Ivan Melendez (45 from 2021-22) and Brooks Kieschnick (43 from 1991-93) have gone deep more times.
“It’s pretty sweet,” Flores said postgame. “Being up there with some of the greatest sluggers here at Texas, like Ivan and those guys, it’s just an honor. I’m thankful for the opportunity to play here, and just being able to get to do what I do.”
Mr. Clutch doing clutch things #HookEm | @young_jflow pic.twitter.com/kCHcuUT7yr
Flores homered during a five-run sixth inning that helped Texas escape an offensive malaise. Held to two runs in Friday’s series-opening loss to the Gators, UT had been shutout over the first five frames on Saturday.
But after a two-hour weather delay in the bottom of the fifth inning forced Florida to pull starter Liam Peterson and go to its bullpen, Texas pounced. Rylan Galvan led off the sixth inning with a towering homer over the 28-foot batter’s eye in center field and Jonah Williams later broke the tie with a three-run double.
“It jacked the team up, it was pretty sick,” Flores said of Galvan’s homer.
Rylan Galvan, Jalin Flores pace Texas in homers, leadership
Pleading for some offense during Saturday’s weather delay, the X account belonging to Occupy Left Field tailgate runner Marc Pena offered $1,000 to the first Longhorn to homer. After Galvan and Flores went deep within three pitches of each other, Pena announced that he’d pay both players.
When asked after the game if he had seen Pena’s offer, Galvan said that Williams, who was due up second after the delay, had mentioned it. But after his monster shot, Galvan told his freshman teammate that “sorry bro, big dogs got to eat first.”
Before his first season at Texas began in February, Schlossnagle said that “there’s never been a good baseball team with a bad catcher, there’s never been a good baseball team with a bad shortstop.” Those words have been spoken into existence on the Texas offense this season since Galvan, the program’s third-year catcher, is leading the team with his 14 homers. Flores is tied with outfielder Will Gasparino for second place.
After Texas secured its 40th victory of the season, Schlossnagle was reminded of those comments. He was then asked what makes Galvan a good catcher and what makes Flores a good shortstop.
“They’re just elite human beings,” Schlossnagle said. “They’re all about the team. They’re super selfless. They’re talented. Coach (David) Pierce did a great job getting them here and helping develop them, and we’ve tried to take that and keep moving it forward.
“But it’s really about the human being they are. They love Texas, and they love being here, and they bleed burnt orange. They’re good leaders in their own way. Jalin’s kind of quiet, but still leads. And Rylan is the more vocal one. It’s just such a unique thing to have those kinds of players and those kinds of people at those positions. It’s kind of like, you know, your quarterback being the leader versus a wide receiver. The quarterback’s got the ball in his hand all the time, like a catcher has the ball in his hand all the time. I’ve had some elite ones in my time, and Rylan is right up there with all of them as a catcher, and so is Jalin as a shortstop.”
Texas and Florida (34-18,12-14) will close out their series on Sunday afternoon. The Longhorns are looking to secure their eighth SEC series win this season.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball: As Longhorns beat Florida, Jalin Flores joins list of all-time UT sluggers
Reporting by Danny Davis, Austin American-Statesman / Austin American-Statesman
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
