COLLEGE STATION — When it comes to starting pitching in the NCAA baseball tournament, strategy immediately comes into play during the regional round.

Regardless of the opponent, does the best starter pitch in a team's tournament opener? Is it better to save that top arm for a tougher matchup later if a team believes it has the luxury of thinking past its first game? Is it as simple as riding the hot hand? On Thursday, Texas A&M, Louisiana and Grambling shared their reasoning behind announcing Tanner Jones (3-1, 6.70 ERA), Carson Fluno (4-0, 2.94) and Mason Martinez (12-2, 4.33) as their starters for Friday when the College Station Regional gets underway.

"If you look at Bill Belichick and the Patriots, they didn't have a definitive offense; they had a game plan, and it was based on who they're playing week to week, and that's kind of the same thing this time of year," Louisiana coach Matt Deggs said. "It's who you're playing. What are their numbers, what are their splits, and what do we have available? The way I look at a regional or a tournament, you've got to do whatever it takes to try to get that first one."

Said Texas A&M coach Jim Schlossnagle: "The formula is to try to give our team the best chance to win the tournament. Plain and simple, that's it. A lot goes into that, matchups, does the other team have somebody that can be real tough that you have to pitch against? It's give us the best chance to win the entire tournament, and so that'll be a day-to-day thing."

"We're not thinking about Saturday; we're just thinking game to game, and then we're going to try to win each game. However that happens, it happens," Grambling coach Davin Pierre said.

As for Texas, the Longhorns have seemingly played the matchups since David Pierce took over ahead of the 2017 season. Texas had Friday starter Nolan Kingham oppose UCLA star and future second-round pick Griffin Canning at the Long Beach regional in 2017, although the Plan B for UT in that case would have been Morgan Cooper, who was days away from being drafted 15 picks after Canning. Texas didn’t bother using its best arm against an overmatched No. 4 seed when it hosted regionals in 2018 and 2021, but Pete Hansen was chosen to open the Austin Regional against Air Force in 2022 (despite being a No. 4 seed, Air Force had beaten the Longhorns earlier that season). Lucas Gordon, the 2023 Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, was UT’s regional-opening starter against Louisiana in Miami last year.

That brings us to why Texas (35-22) will start sophomore Max Grubbs against Louisiana (40-18) on Friday evening. Texas A&M (44-13), which is the No. 3 national seed in the NCAA Tournament, and Grambling (26-26) will play in the other game of the College Station Regional's first day.

Over 17 appearances and 11 starts, Grubbs has compiled a 5-4 record and a team-leading 3.41 ERA. Deggs described Grubbs on Thursday as a "sinker-slider guy that can really pitch."

"Sometimes you don't want to overthink it," Pierce said. "For this weekend, I just felt like they're a very good team. Max has been our guy, so we're going with our guy."

A right-hander from Arlington, Grubbs started this season as an option out of the Texas bullpen. But after a strong start against Washington on March 17, Grubbs remained in the weekend rotation. He has been UT's Friday starter since the Houston series opened April 12.

When asked Thursday what has worked for him this year, Grubbs replied that "just really sticking to my strengths, sinker, slider, attacking people, just being in the strike zone and making them beat me rather than giving up free bases."

"He's given it everything he's got when he toes the rubber on a Friday night. He's doing everything we expect out of him," UT first baseman Jared Thomas said. "He's competing. He wants to win about as bad as anybody on the field, so he's helped us in a tremendous way."

Over the course of this season, Grubbs has thrown 68⅔ innings. As a freshman, he pitched 8⅔. Two weeks ago against Kansas, Pierce pulled Grubbs with two outs in the fifth inning and later said the pitcher's velocity was down. That series actually started on a Thursday, but Pierce declined to bump Grubbs' start up a day because "we've been pushing him pretty hard."

Grubbs, though, hasn't pitched since that game May 17. Texas was eliminated from last week's Big 12 Tournament on May 22 before his scheduled start. Pierce has said a lengthy break would be a good thing for Grubbs, a line of thinking the pitcher later repeated.

"I definitely think it was beneficial," Grubbs said. "It's a whole new role this year for me, so my body took a little toll. Getting the rest this weekend was huge, and I'm ready to go."

As a team, Louisiana is hitting .299 and averaging seven runs per game. The Ragin' Cajuns are led by shortstop Kyle DeBarge, who has mashed a school-record 21 homers in 2024.

Friday's game

College Station Regional: Texas (35-22) vs. Louisiana (40-18), 5 p.m., Blue Bell Park, ESPN2, 1300

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Max Grubbs pitching first for Texas as NCAA baseball tournament begins