Texas opened the baseball season in grand fashion Friday night.

Sophomore shortstop Jalin Flores' grand slam in the sixth inning lifted the 16th-ranked Longhorns to a 7-3 win over San Diego at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in front of an announced crowd of 7,935 — an opening-day record for a UT home game.

Texas found itself facing an early deficit as San Diego built a 3-1 lead by scoring twice in the third inning and again in the sixth. The Longhorns, however, responded by plating five runs with two outs in the bottom of the sixth.

Four of those were scored when Flores launched a 1-2 offering from San Diego reliever Alex Schrier into the newly opened Yeti Yard beyond the fence in left field. Earlier, Flores had hammered a pitch to left field, but the wind turned it into a loud out.

"I thought the first one he hit was probably going to get out too, but he's probably not going to see a lot of sliders in the middle of the plate the rest of the weekend," UT coach David Pierce said.

Texas starting pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr. did not factor in the decision. Reliever Max Grubbs instead earned the win. Johnson, the Big 12 preseason pitcher of the year, allowed five hits and two runs over a 76-pitch, five-inning appearance. He struck out six, walked two, hit a Torero with a first-inning pitch and picked a runner off first base.

"Definitely just walks, got to cut that down. Pitch count, cut that down," Johnson said. "If I do those two things, they don't score those two runs. But J-Flo picked me up, so I'm happy."

Texas (1-0) and San Diego (0-1) will return to UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Saturday afternoon.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball team beats San Diego Toreros in 2024 season opener