Beyond suffering a 5-1 road loss to Tennessee in Friday’s series opener at Lindsay Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, No. 4 Texas faces an immediate future with Ethan Mendoza’s status up in the air.
The junior second baseman left the game after an awkward landing while diving for a ball hit in his direction off the bat of Volunteers second baseman Blake Grimmer. Mendoza tried to shake off what Jim Schlossnagle confirmed after the game is a shoulder injury, but he left the field and was replaced in the lineup by Callum Early.
Schlossnagle didn’t have anything else concrete on Mendoza’s injury, telling Roger Wallace during his postgame radio interview that the injury is to Mendoza’s throwing shoulder (a team source told On Texas Football late Friday that there was no definitive word on the extent of the injury).
“He’s in a fair amount of discomfort. We’ll just have to take it day by day and see if he’s able to — I can’t imagine he’ll be able to throw anytime soon. Maybe, he’ll be able to hit.”
While Early stayed in the game for the second and third innings, he was lifted in the top of the fourth for Josh Livingston. Livingston stayed in the game after beating Tennessee’s shift with a bunt single down the third-base side of the infield, occupying first base, with Casey Borba moving to third base and Temo Becerra sliding over to second. It’s a similar configuration to the one Texas (36-11, 15-9 SEC) utilized when Adrian Rodriguez was sidelined after getting the staple in his surgically-repaired hand removed.
That’s likely the mix the Longhorns will go with as long as Mendoza is out of the lineup. Mendoza, who struck out swinging in his only at-bat of the game, entered the series hitting .278 (50-for-180) with 12 doubles, eight home runs, one triple, 40 RBI and an .844 OPS.
Texas and Tennessee will continue their three-game series in Knoxville on Saturday at 5 p.m. (SEC Network+).
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