Texas All-Sports Weekly Alumni Round-Up

4.14.26 - If you're a Texas Longhorn fan who wants to follow Horns in professional sports, The Texas All-Sports Podcast Alumni Round-Up might be a good spot for you.  This episode we review the week for Horns in the Pros, including Men's Professional Golf, Women's Professional Volleyball, the NBA, MLB and Women's Professional Soccer.

00:00 Intro
01:35 M Golf - PGA - The Masters
07:25 W Volleyball - League One & Major League
12:52 M Baseball - MLB
15:58 M Basketball - NBA
19:04 W Soccer - NWSL & USL Super League
20:19 Outro
20:24 Days Since Last OU Touchdown

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:40

Hello, all you beautiful people. This is Matt Mare in Austin, Texas, welcoming you to this edition of the Texas All Sports Podcast, where we keep you posted on all the Texas Longhorn sports. I hope you are well. And in this episode, we're going to cover Longhorn alumni that were in action last week in various professional sports. And there were Longhorns in five sports on the court, course, and field, including two golfers in the field at the Masters, both former champions, and one the odds-on favorite to win, several volleyball players taking to the court in two volleyball leagues, one group and their league's playoff semifinals trying to play themselves into the championship series. We had Hoopers playing games 81 and 82, the last two games of the NBA regular season, Major League Baseball entering its third week of the season, and ladies on the pitch for some domestic league soccer. We'll cover the sports in that order and jump right into golf, where Thursday through Sunday, the PGA Tour was in Augusta, Georgia for the Masters. The tournament included two Longhorns, both of them former champions. We had Jordan Speith coming in with four top 25 finishes on the year. He was the winner in 2015, and having won the tournament 11 years ago, he was looking to become the second Texas Longhorn to win the Masters twice with an 11-year gap in between, matching Hall of Famer and fellow Longhorn Ben Crenshaw. He was a champion in 1984 and then again 11 years later in 1995. Also in the tournament was Scotty Scheffler, the winner in both 2022 and 2024, who was a tournament favorite. He came in having made six starts on the year, all of them top 25 finishes. He got the win at the American Express Tournament in January, and had two other top five finishes as well. He had finished in the twenties in his last two tournaments entered, and with he and his wife having their second child just two weeks ago, was a bit of a wild card. In round one, Jordan Speith shot an even par 72, which tied him for 17th place. He had three birdies in a bogey to go a two under on the front line, and he had two bogeys on the back nine, including some nice shots to keep it at just two over. Scotty Scheffler in round one shot a two under seventy, tied for sixth place. He kicked it off with an Eagle on their par five second hole, followed by a birdie on the third to go three under after three holes. The rest of the round, he had 14 pars and a bogey on 11. Rory McElroy and Sam Burns were tied for the lead at 5 under, so Scheffler was three back and Speath was five back. After round one, both Longhorns were still in the thick of it. In round two on Friday, Speeth shot a one over 73. He birdied the first hole to go out and won under bogeyed holes 12 and 18 coming back. So he was one over after two rounds and tied for 32nd place overall. Scheffler shot a two over 74 in round two. He had two bogeys and a birdie on the front nine, two bogeys and a birdie on the back nine. He was even par after two rounds and tied for 24th. Rory McElroy followed his 567 in round one with a lowest score of round two, a seven under 65. That put him 12 under for the tournament and put him six shots clear of second place Patrick Reed and Sam Burns, who were both a six under. Scheffler was 12 strokes back, and Speath was 13 back going into the weekend. That takes us to Saturday and round three. Jordan Speith had three birdies and a bogey on the front line, and both two birdies and two bogeys to shoot even parr on the back line and finish two under for the day. With that, he was one under after three rounds and tied for 33rd place. For Scotty Scheffler in round three, he began to show everyone why he's Scotty Scheffler. He eagled the par five second hole, then birdied seven, eight, and nine to go out in five under. He birdied 11 and 16 on the back nine to finish with a seven under 65. He tied with Cameron Young for the lowest score of the round, and after starting the round even par, he was now seven under for the tournament. That moved him from 24th to 7th in the standings. Leader Rory McElroy shot a 1 over 73 for the round, so that put Speeth 12 back with one round to play. Scheffler, however, was four back and within striking range of winning another major. In the final round on Sunday, Jordan Speeth came out strong with Birdies at hole number one and hole number three, and after a bogey on six, he finished a front nine one under. On the back nine, he eagled a par five thirteenth, and after bogeying 18th in two of the first three rounds, finished with a birdie and a strong four under 68 final round. He finished the tournament five under and tied for twelfth. Just like Speith, Sheffler came out strong with birdies on one and three and was two under after nine holes. McElroy was even par after nine, so Sheffler had made up two shots and was only two back with nine to go. Scheffler put himself in position for some birdie putts, but couldn't quite put that additional bit of pressure on McElroy, as after the birdie at three, he parred 11 holes in a row. However, he birded 15, birdied 16, and on 17 had a putt that was a half inch from going in to make it three birdies in a row and put Scheffler at 12 under. As it was, Scheffler finished with a 4 under 68 on the round and finished 11th under for the tournament. Rory McElroy had just enough cushion and won the tournament for the second time in a row at 12 under. From 12 strokes behind after two rounds, Sheffler battled all the way back to finish alone in second place. And it shows why he's been the number one ranked player in the world since May of 2023. So the Horns finished second and twelfth, the best finish of any college contingent in the tournament. Cal Berkeley was actually close with Colin Morikawa tied for 7th and Max Homa tied for 9th. By the way, when I'm saying the Horns had the best finish, I'm just adding second place and 12th place to get a total of 14 for Texas, and I'm adding 7th and 9th to get a total of 16 for Cal. High level math. But a great showing for Texas Longhorns Golf. From golf and the Masters, we're going to move to women's professional volleyball, where there are horns in two domestic leagues, League One Volleyball and Major League Volleyball. And we're going to start with League One Volleyball since they are in their playoffs. There's only one team in the league with Longhorns on the roster, but the Austin team actually has eight former Longhorns, including Cat Bell, Logan Eggleston, Molly McCage, Asia O'Neill, Bella Bergmark, Madison Skinner, Julianne Fawcett, and Zoe Jarvis. After a big final week of the regular season, the Austin team earned the number three seed in the playoffs and played number two seed Atlanta and Louisville, Kentucky on Friday, and again on Saturday, they were determining who was going to the finals to play the winner of Salt Lake versus number one seed Houston. The structure was a best of five set match on Friday and another best of five set match on Saturday. If they split the matches immediately after the second match, they would play what's called a golden set. One set to 15 points. Whomever won that set won the series. On Friday, Austin played maybe its best match of the season. They jumped to leads in each set and didn't give Atlanta any room to make a move. They took the match in straight sets, 25-21, 25-20, and 25-21. Logan Eggleston led with 11 kills, two blocks, nine digs, and one assist. Madison Skinner had 10 kills, a block, six digs, and one assist. Molly McCage, eight kills and one block, and Asia O'Neill, seven kills and three blocks. Austin took a 1-0 lead into the match Saturday, and whereas Austin was a machine on Friday, Saturday was much more of a grind and a battle. The first set was close the entire way, but Atlanta took it 25-23. Austin rebounded and controlled the second set 25-19. The third set was much like the first, with Atlanta eking it out 25-22. The battle went to our next level in the fourth set as Atlanta was trying to even up the series and Austin was still fighting for a series suite. It was a tough, tense set that went to extra points before Austin stayed alive with a 31-29 win. So it was on to a fifth set to 15 points. Atlanta played tough and were able to take it 15-11. That won them the match and even the series, and with that, it was on to a golden set. One set to 15 points with the winner advancing to the league championship. And it looked a lot like Friday's match for Austin. They jumped out to a lead and didn't really give Atlanta a chance to come back, closing it out 15-8 to clinch the series and go to the finals. Madison Skinner had 18 kills and five digs. Asia O'Neal, 14 kills, 4 blocks, 3 digs. Logan Eggleston, 13 kills, 20 digs, and 3 aces. Molly McCage had 11 kills and 6 blocks. So Austin is still alive in their pursuit to repeat as league champions. And they'll be taking on Salt Lake, who finished a regular season with the same record as Austin at 10-10. They played each other four times during the regular season with Salt Lake winning the first and the second matchups. Austin took the second two, including one in the last week, which helped get them into the playoffs. In the first round, Austin was the number three seed and they took out the number two seed. Salt Lake was the number four seed and they took out number one seed Houston. Salt Lake lost the first match, came back to win the second, and then won a golden set and extra points 19-17. They're playing this Thursday and Saturday in Long Beach, California, and the matches will be on the USA network. From League One volleyball, we'll jump over to Major League Volleyball where there are three horns on three teams. That league is about 23 games into a 28 game season. First, there's Emma Halter with the Indianapolis Ignite. Thursday the night, they played in the San Diego Mojo. Halter played in the fifth set and had two digs and helping the Ignite take the final set and get the win. On Sunday the 12th, she got some play in sets two and three of a three-set sweep for the Ignite over the Atlanta vibe. The Ignite lead the standings in the 18th league at 18 and 4. They play next this Friday at the Grand Rapids Rise, which you can watch on YouTube. And on Sunday, they play the Dallas Pulse on Vice TV. There's also Kayla Caffey, who's a middle blocker with the San Diego Mojo, but she hasn't played since February 15th. So we'll go on to Avery Carlson, who's a setter with the Atlanta Vibe. On Friday versus Columbus Fury, she led the team to a 3-2 victory with 44 assists and an ace. And on Sunday, she had 10 assists and a loss to the Ignite. The Atlanta Vibe are 9-13 and in sixth place. Friday, they host the San Diego Mojo, which is on a Script Sports Network. And Sunday, they host the Omaha Supernovos. You can watch that on YouTube. From the volleyball court, we'll jump over to the Baseball Diamond and take a look at the four horns that are in Major League Baseball. First, there's Hobie Milner, a relief pitcher in his 10th year with the Chicago Cubs. On Tuesday, the 7th, he pitched one and a third scoreless innings in a win over the Tampa Bay Rays. On Wednesday the 8th, he pitched one scoreless inning in another win over the Rays. And on Saturday the 11th, he pitched the top of the ninth inning and set the Pirates down 1-2-3 in an 11-inning loss. On the season, Milner has eight appearances with a 2.16 ERA, 8 3rd innings pitched with 1K and no walks. After the weekend, the Cubs were 7-9, fifth place in the National League Central. And this coming week, they'll be at the Philadelphia Phillies Monday through Wednesday and hosting the New York Mets Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Second, we'll go to Cody Clemens. In his fifth year, he's with the Minnesota Twins. And on Monday, he had a pinch hit strikeout in a win versus the Detroit Tigers. Thursday, he was 0-2 with two walks in another win versus Tigers. And on Sunday, he was one for five with a solo home run off Matt Scherzer in a win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Twins were 6-1 for the week, standing at 10-7 at the end of the weekend, leading the American League Central. And on Monday through Wednesday, they're going to be in Boston. They're going to be in Cincinnati against the Reds Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Next, we'll move to Bryce Elder. He's fifth in a starting rotation for the Atlanta Braves. Elders got the start last Friday night. He pitched four and two-thirds innings, gave up two earned runs, four hits, had three K's and three walks. In three starts so far this year, he has a 1-1 record with an ERA of 1.02, 16 strikeouts, 5 walks, and 17 and 2 thirds innings. His ERA of 1.02 is currently sixth best in Major League Baseball. The Braves are 10-7, first in the National League East. Elder is next slated to pitch Wednesday against the Florida Marlins in Miami. And finally, there's David Hamilton in his fourth year with the Milwaukee Brewers. They had two series this week. First, against the Boston Red Sox. On Monday, he went one for two with two walks. On Tuesday, he was 0 for 1 with an RBI when hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. And Wednesday, he was one for three. Over the weekend, they played the Washington Nationals. Friday, he was 0 for 4. Saturday, did not play. Sunday, 0 for 3. On the season, he's hitting 200 with six hits and three RBIs and 30 at bats. The Brewers are 8-7, third in the National League Central. They're playing the Toronto Blue Jays Tuesday through Thursday and are at the Florida Marlins Friday through Sunday. From the four players in Major League Baseball, we'll move to the eight players in the NBA who were playing the last two games of the regular season. We'll start with Kevin Durant in his 19th year with the Houston Rockets. And on Friday, in a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves 136-132, he had 33 points, 7 rebounds, and 7 assists. And the most interesting thing was he was 0 for 1 on threes. So he only shot one three-pointer in the whole game. On Sunday, the last game of the season, he didn't play in a victory over the Memphis Grizzlies 132-101. So the Rockets finished 52-30, the fifth seed in the West, and they'll play the Los Angeles Lakers and Jackson Hayes in the first round. There are two Longhorns on the Milwaukee Bucks. First, Miles Turner in his 11th year. On Friday in a 125, 108 win over the Brooklyn Nets, he had 13 points and 5 rebounds. Jericho Sims in his fifth year had 11 points on 4 for 4 shooting and 10 rebounds as well. On Sunday, in a loss 126-106 to the Philadelphia 76ers, Turner did not play. Sims had 15 points on 7 for 9 shooting and 7 rebounds. So the Bucks finished 32-50 on the season and they will not be in the playoffs. Like Milwaukee, the Cleveland Cavaliers have two former horns on the roster as well. First, as Jarrett Allen in his ninth year took the weekend off. He's nursing knee tendinitis getting ready for the playoffs. Jalen Tyson in his second year on Friday at 15 points and 24 minutes in a loss to the Atlanta Hawks, 124-102. And on Sunday, he had 18 points and six rebounds and 26 minutes in a win over the Washington Wizards 130-117. The Cavaliers finished at 52-30 on a season. They're the fourth seed in the East, and they'll be playing the Toronto Raptors in the first round. Jackson Hayes, in his seventh year with the Los Angeles Lakers, didn't play this weekend either. The Lakers were 2-0 on the weekend, finishing at 53-29. They're the fourth seed in the West, and they'll be playing Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets in the first round. Trey Johnson, a rookie with the Washington Wizards, didn't play this weekend. He missed the last five games with a foot spring. The Wizards lost both games this weekend and maintained the worst record in the league, as was their goal. Jason Kent, a rookie with the Portland Trailblazers, had a quick weekend. On Friday, he played one minute and a win over the Clippers. And on Sunday, he played two minutes in a win over the Sacramento Kings. The Trailblazers finished at 42-40. They're the eighth seed in the West, and they'll play the number seven seed Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference play-in on Teasday. And we'll wrap up with the two domestic professional women's soccer leagues. First, the National Women's Soccer League, or NWSL, Easy. They're on hiatus until April 24th. And there's also the United Soccer League Super League, and they are 23 to 24 games into a 28-game season. On the Dallas Trinity, there are three horns: Sierra Henson, Alexi Misimo, and Lauren Lapamorda. On Sunday, they hosted Brooklyn SC, lost 3-0. They're currently in fourth position in the league with nine wins and nine losses and five ties. They next play the Carolina Scent FC Sunday at home in the Cotton Bowl. The fourth Longhorn in the league is midfielder Jilly Shimkin with the Tampa Bay Sun. Saturday, they played the DC Power FC and lost 2-0. They're currently in ninth place of nine teams, four wins, ten losses, nine draws. They're next at Lexington SC on Saturday. With the Dallas Trinity being in fourth and the Tampa Bay Sun being in ninth, about five games to go in the season, the top four teams make the playoffs. And that's going to wrap up this past week's action for Longhorns in the professional ranks. Before we sign off, I just want to remind you, it's been 920 days since the Oklahoma Sooners last scored a touchdown against the Texas Longhorns. So with that, we'd like to wish good luck to all the Longhorns in action this weekend, in particular to the Austin Love volleyball team and their championship matchup. We'll be back on Friday to wrap up the week's results and take a look at the weekend on tap for the Collegiate Longhorns. Next Tuesday, we'll cover the week of Longhorns and Professional Action and the Alumni Roundup. Until then, you all have a great week. Be good to each other out there and hook them horns.