Last season, Silas Ardoin and the Texas Longhorns felt the agony of falling a game short of the College World Series finals.

This time he has plans to go out on top.

“That loss was one of the toughest losses in my career being so close to playing for what we dreamed of — a national championship,” said Ardoin, who prepped at Sam Houston High School in Moss Bluff and helped lead the Broncos to the 2019 Class 5A final. “We were one win away. It was heartbreaking.

“We learned from those things and it made our team hungry going into the offseason. We made that extra push to make it to the end and be the winner.”

The Longhorns lost 4-3 in the 2021 semifinals to eventual national champion Mississippi State. But Ardoin has turned that loss into a breakout season to become one of the top catchers in the nation.

The redshirt sophomore backstop is batting .276 with 48 runs, 20 doubles, a triple, 12 home runs and 50 RBIs, more than doubling his career totals in nearly every category. He has started all but one of the Longhorns’ 67 games, boasts a .991 fielding percentage and has thrown out 21 base runners.

“Getting at-bats and getting the experience has helped a lot, and trusting my work each and every day,” Ardoin said. “I am trying to get a little bit better, and it has really shown on the field.

“I have always believed that I had that in me. I am going to continue to work to get better. A lot of it has to do with experience and playing a full season last year. My first year was cut because of COVID, so I didn’t get all the at-bats that I wanted. Having a full season last year and going into the offseason knowing what I needed to do in the weight room and cages helped me to continue to grow.”

Ardoin opened the season with a three-hit, three-RBI performance against Rice. In his last four games, Ardoin had five hits, including a solo home run in the top of the ninth as the Longhorns knocked off host Eastern Carolina 11-1 Sunday in the super regionals.

Texas (47-20) will open the CWS at 6 p.m. Friday against Notre Dame (40-15), which knocked off No. 1 Tennessee to get to Omaha, but Ardoin says he’s not worried. The Longhorns beat Tennessee 7-2 in March at the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic in Houston.

“They are a great team,” Ardoin said of Notre Dame. “At this point in the season, every team is the hottest in the nation.

“You don’t get to Omaha by accident. It is hard to do. We know they knocked off Tennessee, and Tennessee is a great ball club. We have knocked off Tennessee too, and we are just as good if not better than every opponent we are going to face in Omaha. It is going to be a lot of fun.”