Texas baseball notebook: All-star pitcher Bryce Elder sets goals ahead of Braves season

Having been raised in Decatur, Bryce Elder considers himself a lifelong fan of the Texas Rangers.

So Elder was happy when the Rangers won the World Series in November, But the first championship in Rangers history didn't bring him as much joy as he once thought it would.

That could be in part because Elder now pitches for the Atlanta Braves. He found himself thinking about how Atlanta won a regular-season series in Arlington last season. Elder and the Braves, however, were at home during the World Series since they were eliminated earlier in the National League playoffs.

"I was happy for them," Elder said Saturday at the Texas alumni game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. "But I wasn't near as happy as I thought I was going to be. I can promise you that."

Despite the Braves falling short in the postseason, Elder still enjoyed a breakout year in 2023. The former Longhorn who was drafted in the fifth round of the 2020 MLB draft went 12-4 with a 3.81 ERA. He also was named to the MLB All-Star Game for the first time.

Elder, 24, said he learned a lot during the 2023 season. Since his numbers weren't as good after the all-star break, he noted that "that last two, three months, it's a lot of baseball, it's a lot of pitching and so I look forward to this year. I think I'm ready not just to be good for half a season, but a whole season."

One of the batters Elder retired last season was Philadelphia Phillies infielder Kody Clemens. Elder was a freshman at Texas in 2018 when Clemens fueled the Longhorns' run to a Big 12 championship and College World Series appearance.

During a 5-1 win by Atlanta in June, Clemens went 0-for-3 against Elder. That marked the first time since 2021 that a former UT pitcher had pitched against a former Texas teammate in a MLB game.

"I'm super happy for him, it was super awesome to watch. He's such a great human as well," Clemens said. "It was fun facing him. It's a surreal moment when your ex-teammate at Texas, we're up in the big leagues facing each other in a big-league game. That's pretty crazy and super rare to happen. So it's a pretty cool moment for both of us and I'm sure he enjoyed it as much as I did."

When asked if he had any goals for this season, Elder didn't have any statistics in mind. One year after making 31 starts, he said he just wanted to make 32 starts and put Atlanta in a position to win each of those games.

Former UT ace expresses confidence in current Texas staff

At one point on Saturday, Elder posed for a picture with Nolan Kingham, Ty Madden, Pete Hansen and Lucas Gordon. Those five pitchers represent the Friday night starters of the David Pierce era at Texas. All five are pitching professionally now.

Of that group, Gordon is probably best-equipped to analyze UT's current staff. He played at Texas the past three seasons before the Chicago White Sox selected him in the sixth round of the 2023 draft. He was the Big 12 pitcher of the year last season.

Gordon was asked about what he thought about Texas' pitching staff. Starting with presumed ace Lebarron Johnson, Jr., Gordon joked that "it's impressive watching him throw. Every time I watch him throw, I'm kind of mad that he's got all that."

"I'm excited for Lebarron. A guy like Charlie (Hurley) who's made such big strides, I'm so excited to watch him grow. Obviously, Tanner (Witt). Tanner's my guy. Y'all have seen what he can do and he's working his butt off to get back to where he was and be a guy this year."

What did Texas want out of its alumni game?

As for the game itself, UT posted a 7-4 win over an alumni team that played Texas Exes at most of the positions throughout the seven-inning contest. Peyton Powell and Casey Cummings both homered for the Longhorns and Max Belyeu drove in two runs. Sophomore Cody Howard started on the mound for the alumni team and threw three solid innings against his current teammates.

Since Saturday’s game was as much of a reunion as it was a scrimmage, what did Texas want to gain?

"Being here at the University of Texas, you have to learn how to deal with distractions and this is a perfect trial run for us," Texas coach David Pierce said. "It's kind of one of those days where there's a lot of interaction between both teams because of the fun aspect of it, but I wanted to see us go out there and just compete with a relaxed mentality and go out there and see if we can get a little bit better every day."

Texas opens the season on Feb. 16 with a home game against San Diego. The Longhorns were ranked 16th in the first D1baseball poll of the season and picked to finish second in the Big 12’s preseason poll.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Former Texas star Bryce Elder ready for Atlanta Braves baseball season