MUSING FROM THE DISCH:
History made, history earned. The Longhorns obliterated Houston Christian during the mid-week which saw a numerous young guys get their first hits. As an encore, the Horns followed that up with a weekend sweep of Cal Poly. This was not just any weekend sweep though, as they shut out Cal Poly all three games, a feat that has only happened twice previously in Texas Baseball history. As all of you are aware, it is not easy to make history at Texas when it comes to baseball because they are one of the bluest of blue bloods. In the 1960s against the now defunct SMU Mustangs and in 2002 against UT-Pan American represent the only previous times when the Horns have swept a series and shut out the same opposing team in all three games. That said, here is what we know about this squad through 7 games.
Outstanding support from the Texas fanbase. I struggle to recall better support for Texas Baseball in the month of February. On Saturday, the Horns had an announced crowd of 8,033 which represents the 5th largest in the history of Disch-Falk Field. The four prior larger crowds were back in 1977 and 1991 when Texas scrimmaged Texas Rangers and then the 2022 Regional games in Austin.
USELESS STAT OF THE DAY:
Quick comparison on some random metrics between 2024 and 2023 (through 7 games):
STAT 2024 v. 2023
Runs For 56 32
Runs Against 16 31
Home Runs 11 5
Walks 32 31
Strikeouts 60 57
Hits 79 48
RBIs 48 24
BIG 12 WEEKLY AWARDS:
Lebarron Johnson Jr and Peyton Powell both earned awards for their performances this week.
Lebarron Johnson Jr was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Peyton Powell was named Big 12 Player of the Week.
MID-WEEK PREVIEW:
Opponent: St. John's Red Storm (2-2)
Date: Tuesday February 27th
Time: 630pm
Where: Disch-Falk Field
TV: LHN
St. John's Red Storm (2-2) come to Austin after a three game series at Houston in which they went 1-2, losing Friday and Saturday, but bouncing back to avoid being swept by winning on Sunday. Prior to that, St. John's opened up the season at #4 Florida. The Red Storm opened up the season with a 9-5 upset win against Florida. Unfortunately, games 2 and 3 of the series had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. The Red Storm have yet to play a home game this season and won't until March 5th.
St. John's was picked preseason to finish 6th out of 8 teams in the Big East. In 2023, they finished 28-25 (8-12 Big East), which happened to be the first season in which St. John's finished with a winning season under the tutelage of Coach Mike Hampton, since he took over in 2020.
History: The Horns and Red Storm have met four times previously, interestingly enough, all in post season play. Back in 1949, the Horns beat St. John's 7-1 in Wichita, Kansas, the site of the College World Series. For those that don't know their Longhorn history, it also happened to be the year the Horns won their first National Championship. Texas and St. John's next met in 1966 in Omaha during the College World Series, unfortunately falling to the Red Storm 2-0. The Horns ended up losing to eventual National Runner Up Oklahoma State that season. The latest meeting between Texas and St. John's was in 2008 in the Rice Regional. The Horns lost their opening game by a score of 2-1, but bounced back to beat St. John's by a score of 4-3, knocking St. John's out of the NCAA Tournament.
As you can see below, St. John's is not a team that has hit for power this year, nor have have they drawn many walks, though they have hit a fair number of doubles. In addition, the Red Storm is not a team that attempts to steal very often. On the pitching front, they have an inflated ERA due to the fact their staff is has given up an average of 7.5 runs over their first four games. In fact, the fewest runs they have given up in a game was against #4 Florida when they gave up 5 runs.
Rank: Unranked
RPI: #1
SOS: #1
St. John's Team Stats:
Batting Average - .287
OPS - .800
Doubles - 13
Triples - 1
Home Runs - 1
SLG% - .413
Walks - 19
Strikeouts - 42
OB% - .387
Stolen Bases - 2 for 3
ERA - 7.68
WHIP - 2.00
Walks - 23
B/Avg - .341
Errors - 2
Pitching Matchups - Coach Pierce keeps us guessing and has decided to go with Grubbs this week.
TUESDAY–Texas RHP Max Grubbs (1-0. 3.86) vs. St. John's LHP Evan Chaffee (0-0, 54.00)
BIG 12 RECAP:
BIG 12 RPI/SOS:
TOP 25 RANKINGS:
Random this and that around College Baseball:
Texas A&M may be undefeated and rolling this season under Coach Schloss, but at least the Horns do not have opposing players being locked in the bathroom [insert glory holes joke here].
What a heck of a pitching staff that Arkansas has put together. That 17K performance by Hagen Smith against Top 10 Oregon State was simply stunning. Texas Tech transfer Mason Molina then followed up on Sunday with 10Ks himself.
In case you missed it, the weekend series between East Carolina and North Carolina was much watch baseball. Two schools that do not like each other and have teams performing at a high level. Damn good stuff!
History made, history earned. The Longhorns obliterated Houston Christian during the mid-week which saw a numerous young guys get their first hits. As an encore, the Horns followed that up with a weekend sweep of Cal Poly. This was not just any weekend sweep though, as they shut out Cal Poly all three games, a feat that has only happened twice previously in Texas Baseball history. As all of you are aware, it is not easy to make history at Texas when it comes to baseball because they are one of the bluest of blue bloods. In the 1960s against the now defunct SMU Mustangs and in 2002 against UT-Pan American represent the only previous times when the Horns have swept a series and shut out the same opposing team in all three games. That said, here is what we know about this squad through 7 games.
- Are they a finished product? Hell no.
- Are they a solid ball club that will be in the NCAA Regionals? Yes.
- Should there be concern around lack of hitting so far? Probably not, though there is a lot of room for growth.
- Does Texas have the starting pitching to make a deep run in the NCAA Tournament? Unsure, but they have an ace in LBJ and two very solid pitchers in Charlie Hurley and Cody Howard.
- Is the 2024 bullpen better than the 2023 bullpen? Yes. There is much more talent and potential in the 2024 edition of the Texas bullpen.
- Will we continue to see lineup changes? Yes. Coach Pierce will continue to tinker until he has the right fit of performance and mentality. When I talked to him on Sunday, he said a lot of it will come down to who is performing and how they are doing mentally. A great example is Max Belyeu got a couple days off as he was pressing and came back with back to back games hitting a home run.
- Will Tanner Witt be a factor for Texas? Yes. What that looks like remains to be seen, but having Witt in the bullpen sessions and dugout is a win in of itself. He is a fierce competitor and can help the young guys understand the work it takes and mentally what it means to be a pitcher at Texas. Right now, he is still working through a small issue physically, but Coach Pierce and staff believe that he will help this team in 2024.
Outstanding support from the Texas fanbase. I struggle to recall better support for Texas Baseball in the month of February. On Saturday, the Horns had an announced crowd of 8,033 which represents the 5th largest in the history of Disch-Falk Field. The four prior larger crowds were back in 1977 and 1991 when Texas scrimmaged Texas Rangers and then the 2022 Regional games in Austin.
USELESS STAT OF THE DAY:
Quick comparison on some random metrics between 2024 and 2023 (through 7 games):
STAT 2024 v. 2023
Runs For 56 32
Runs Against 16 31
Home Runs 11 5
Walks 32 31
Strikeouts 60 57
Hits 79 48
RBIs 48 24
BIG 12 WEEKLY AWARDS:
Lebarron Johnson Jr and Peyton Powell both earned awards for their performances this week.
Lebarron Johnson Jr was named Big 12 Pitcher of the Week and Peyton Powell was named Big 12 Player of the Week.
MID-WEEK PREVIEW:
Opponent: St. John's Red Storm (2-2)
Date: Tuesday February 27th
Time: 630pm
Where: Disch-Falk Field
TV: LHN
St. John's Red Storm (2-2) come to Austin after a three game series at Houston in which they went 1-2, losing Friday and Saturday, but bouncing back to avoid being swept by winning on Sunday. Prior to that, St. John's opened up the season at #4 Florida. The Red Storm opened up the season with a 9-5 upset win against Florida. Unfortunately, games 2 and 3 of the series had to be cancelled due to inclement weather. The Red Storm have yet to play a home game this season and won't until March 5th.
St. John's was picked preseason to finish 6th out of 8 teams in the Big East. In 2023, they finished 28-25 (8-12 Big East), which happened to be the first season in which St. John's finished with a winning season under the tutelage of Coach Mike Hampton, since he took over in 2020.
History: The Horns and Red Storm have met four times previously, interestingly enough, all in post season play. Back in 1949, the Horns beat St. John's 7-1 in Wichita, Kansas, the site of the College World Series. For those that don't know their Longhorn history, it also happened to be the year the Horns won their first National Championship. Texas and St. John's next met in 1966 in Omaha during the College World Series, unfortunately falling to the Red Storm 2-0. The Horns ended up losing to eventual National Runner Up Oklahoma State that season. The latest meeting between Texas and St. John's was in 2008 in the Rice Regional. The Horns lost their opening game by a score of 2-1, but bounced back to beat St. John's by a score of 4-3, knocking St. John's out of the NCAA Tournament.
As you can see below, St. John's is not a team that has hit for power this year, nor have have they drawn many walks, though they have hit a fair number of doubles. In addition, the Red Storm is not a team that attempts to steal very often. On the pitching front, they have an inflated ERA due to the fact their staff is has given up an average of 7.5 runs over their first four games. In fact, the fewest runs they have given up in a game was against #4 Florida when they gave up 5 runs.
Rank: Unranked
RPI: #1
SOS: #1
St. John's Team Stats:
Batting Average - .287
OPS - .800
Doubles - 13
Triples - 1
Home Runs - 1
SLG% - .413
Walks - 19
Strikeouts - 42
OB% - .387
Stolen Bases - 2 for 3
ERA - 7.68
WHIP - 2.00
Walks - 23
B/Avg - .341
Errors - 2
Pitching Matchups - Coach Pierce keeps us guessing and has decided to go with Grubbs this week.
TUESDAY–Texas RHP Max Grubbs (1-0. 3.86) vs. St. John's LHP Evan Chaffee (0-0, 54.00)
BIG 12 RECAP:
- TCU (7-0) - Frogs are humming right now, beating Texas State during the mid-week and then sweeping former Top 20 UCLA Bruins
- UCF (5-0) - Knights beat Miami Hurricanes during the mid-week and then swept Stamford over the weekend
- Houston (6-1) - Cougars obliterated Prairie View A&M during the mid-week and then took 2 of 3 against St. John's
- Texas (6-1) - Horns battered Houston Christian and then swept Cal Poly
- Texas Tech (6-2) - Red Raiders lost mid-week to Oregon State, but bounced back by sweeping Texas Southern by a combined score of 68-14
- Oklahoma (5-3) - Sooners lost to Dallas Baptist during the mid-week, but bounced back to take 3 of 4 against Wright State
- West Virginia (5-4) - Mountaineers won 2 of 3 against Charlotte over the weekend, losing on Sunday
- Oklahoma St (4-3) - Cowboys beat Michigan and #2 Arkansas in extra innings, before falling to #6 Oregon State in Arlington
- Kansas State (4-3) - Wildcats lost to Arizona during the mid-week week and then took 2 of 3 against Holy Cross
- Cincy (3-3) - Bearcats beat Northern Kentucky during the mid-week and then followed up with wins against Ball State and Illinois, but got rocked by Coastal Carolina on Sunday
- Kansas (3-4) - Kansas beat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi during the mid-week, then beat Texas State, but lost to Washington State and Kentucky in the Karbach Classic
- BYU (2-5) - Cougars were shut out by Cal during the mid-week and then lost 2 of 3 to Cal Davis over the weekend
- Baylor (1-6) - Bears beat Lamar during the mid-week to garner their first win of the season, but then got swept by Indiana over the weekend
BIG 12 RPI/SOS:
- Houston 2 / 2
- TCU 3 / 9
- UCF 4 / 10
- Texas 26 / 45
- Oklahoma St 28 / 34
- Texas Tech 30 / 49
- West Virginia 46 / 69
- Oklahoma 73 / 80
- Kansas St 79 / 74
- Baylor 115 / 32
- Cincy 128 / 161
- BYU 138 / 100
- Kansas 162 / 137
TOP 25 RANKINGS:
- Wake Forest (6-1)
- Arkansas (5-2)
- LSU (7-1)
- Florida (5-1)
- TCU (7-0)
- Oregon State (7-1)
- Texas A&M (7-0)
- Tennessee (7-1)
- Vanderbilt (5-3)
- Clemson (6-1)
- East Carolina (5-2)
- Duke (7-0)
- Virginia (7-0)
- NC State (4-2)
- Texas (6-1)
- Alabama (8-0)
- North Carolina (5-2)
- Texas Tech (6-2)
- South Carolina (7-1)
- Indiana (6-1)
- Campbell (6-1)
- Coastal Carolina (5-2)
- Auburn (6-1)
- UC Santa Barbara (3-3)
- Dallas Baptist (7-0)
Random this and that around College Baseball:
Texas A&M may be undefeated and rolling this season under Coach Schloss, but at least the Horns do not have opposing players being locked in the bathroom [insert glory holes joke here].
What a heck of a pitching staff that Arkansas has put together. That 17K performance by Hagen Smith against Top 10 Oregon State was simply stunning. Texas Tech transfer Mason Molina then followed up on Sunday with 10Ks himself.
In case you missed it, the weekend series between East Carolina and North Carolina was much watch baseball. Two schools that do not like each other and have teams performing at a high level. Damn good stuff!
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