Sunday 4:50 p.m. update:
The No. 3 Longhorns (30-8) recorded their third-straight sweep, have now won 13-straight games and finished their homestand a perfect 10-0 by outscoring opponents 102-23. They’re now hitting .290/.401/.460 this season and are ready for the upcoming Big 12 gauntlet.
“I said at the beginning of the year that this team is different. And also said I had no idea how many games we're gonna win. But every single day, if we continue to do what we're doing, I like our chances. And I'm having a blast,” responded David Pierce when asked how much fun he’s having coaching this group.
Following a frustratingly quiet game in the batter’s box, which still resulted in a win, the Longhorns, here to get some work in at 8:00 a.m. this morning according to Mike Antico, returned to torturing Abilene Christian (19-16) pitching like ACU’s basketball team tortured UT guards with its pressure defense. It doesn’t make up for a shocking first-round upset in the NCAA Tournament, but the school’s baseball program did its part to provide Texas fans some revenge by outscoring ACU 32-2 and sweeping it with today’s 11-1 run-rule victory.
Texas delivered an early knockout punch in the first inning. Mike Antico led off the inning by beating out an infield single, stole second base, and moved to third on Mitchell Daly’s bunt. Zach Zubia walked to put runners on the corners, and Ivan Melendez put Texas on the board with a RBI double to left-center. With runners again on the corners, DJ Petrinsky, starting at catcher, lined a hard RBI single into left field and Douglas Hodo followed with a hard RBI single into right field. The Texas lead increased to 4-0 when Eric Kennedy’s force out allowed a runner to score.
Antico was in the middle of scoring the very next inning when he smacked a leadoff triple to the wall in right-center field. A soft fly ball off Daly’s bat dropped in for a RBI single, and after he stole second, he scored easily when Melendez hit a RBI triple.
Gifted an early 6-0 advantage, Kolby Kubichek had all the ingredients necessary to challenge ACU hitters and cruise through his outing with his sinker. However, the junior right-handed nibbled too much instead of consistently attacking and challenging hitters, which resulted in him needing 86 pitches through five innings.
That said, Kubichek, now 5-2 this season, limited ACU to just one run on five hits, two walks, one hit batter and two strikeouts. When he needed to, Kubichek repeatedly made quality pitches with runners on base and received some help from a sharp defense, especially Zubia at first base. Speaking of Zubia, big fella didn’t just flash some leather. He was due for a big fly, and smashed a solo bomb the opposite way in the fourth inning. Zubia kept his hands back on a breaking ball, extended his arms and put the barrel on the ball to lift it out, showcasing his impressive strength.
But Zubia wouldn’t be the only one to hit a homer today. Antico’s resurgence in the batter’s box was emphasized when the senior ripped a three-run homer out to right-center field in the fifth inning. The last couple weeks, Antico, who finished 3-for-4 with three RBI, three runs and a walk, has done a much better job of showcasing a shorter, quicker swing. He’s starting to get his very strong lower half into his swing more often, which is allowing him to drive the baseball to all parts of the field.
“The hard work, you know, it really pays off,” Antico said. “We really are all bought into the same ideas whether it be hitting or defense or pitching… We're all really bought into the same types of deals, and we just try to execute it when it comes game time. And that is all working for us.”
A couple things to keep an eye on: Cam Williams was removed from the game after the bottom of the sixth inning. After he scored from second on Zubia’s hit, Williams had a small limp as he walked back to the dugout and ran a little gingerly. Pierce said after the game he noticed Williams limping and Troy Tulowitzki was already ready to suggest pulling Williams from the game for precautionary reasons, which Pierce did. The issue didn’t sound serious, and Pierce didn’t seem concerned. On a collision at third base earlier, it looked like the runner may have forced Williams to roll his ankle.
Secondly, Drew Shifflet needed just six pitches to fire a perfect ninth inning. Since he and Texas worked to lower his arm angle, Shifflet has added some more life to his sinking fastball and could emerge as a valuable bullpen piece moving forward. I’m not saying Texas is going to Omaha, but remember what happened with Parker Joe Robinson in 2018? He lowered his arm angle and became a crucial piece of the bullpen puzzle.
*****
Sunday 12:10 p.m. update:
Sunday's lineup as Texas goes for its third-straight sweep.
*****
Saturday 5:50 p.m. update:
Baseball is a funny game. So, maybe it wasn’t a surprise after a season-high 18 runs scored last night, the No. 3 Longhorns (29-8) barely missed barreling pitches in a handful of at-bats and then watched hard contact repeatedly find a glove. But as they’ve done for a long while now, Texas found a way to win a low-scoring game over Abilene Christian, 3-1. It has now won 12-straight games.
“I just think that anybody that understands this game should have expected a close game,” said David Pierce.
ACU (19-15) quickly erased any possibility of being shut out back-to-back games with a first-inning run. However, Texas starter Tristan Stevens then immediately established Abilene Chrisitan would return to seeing a bunch of zeros on the scoreboard. The righty showcased his excellent control by firing 62 of his 88 pitches for strikes, and did so with all three pitches - fastball, slider and changeup. In addition to issuing zero free passes, Stevens allowed just five hits and struck out five. He’s now thrown 24.2-straight innings without issuing a free pass.
Given he threw so many pitches without stress, Stevens probably could have gone the distance. But Texas handed the ball in the top of the eighth inning to freshman Tanner Witt with a 2-1 lead. Witt proceeded to fire 2.0 scoreless frames and continued to look improved for the second time this week.
Texas finally broke through with a run in the sixth inning. It wasn’t for lack of good contact; the Longhorns simply had some bad luck in addition to barely missing some pitches and skying them in the air. Zach Zubia and Ivan Melendez hit back-to-back one-out singles through the right side of the infield to put runners on the corners, and ACU then issued back-to-back walks to force in a run. But Cam Williams just missed a pitch with two outs and the bases loaded, which resulted in a high fly out to left field.
In the bottom of the seventh, Texas grabbed the lead. Trey Faltine, who opened the inning with a walk, stood on second with two outs and scored when Zubia kept his hands back on a changeup and hit a hard RBI single through the middle of the infield. Texas added a run in the eighth when Williams found a better part of the barrel and drove a RBI double to the wall in left-center.
Faltine was in the middle of perhaps the biggest play of the game. In the top of the eighth inning, Grayson Tatrow burned Mike Antico with a line drive to the deepest part of the park in left-center. Antico fired the ball into Faltine, who saw the runner trying to stretch a double into a triple. The UT shortstop fired a hard throw into third base and Williams made a very athletic play to tag the runner for the second out.
The 3-1 lead was more than enough for Witt in the ninth inning. He punched out two in a perfect frame and put an exclamation point on an impressive collective pitching performance when he struck out the final hitter with a high heater.
“I truly believe that this team is that,” responded Pierce when asked about the team’s mindset of finding a way to win no matter the situation. “They have a big blowout win last night. They’re in a tough one, and down one to nothing most of the game and then just chipped away. And we still really got very little offense, but we got enough to win the game. And that says a lot about our team. You can look at multiple ways to win the game, defensive and pitching dominated today. We had to make a great play to prevent them from potentially tying the ballgame and we did it. And so you know, the no panic mentality is fine. This is a very loose team as well.”
Offensively, the Longhorns had more walks (7) than strikeouts (6). Mitchell Daly hit very hard liners three times with two of them falling in for singles; Faltine made hard contact three times, and Williams showed signs of breaking out again with his eighth-inning line drive after getting just an inch or two under pitches earlier in the game.
*******
Saturday 2:00 p.m.:
Game two, 2:30 p.m. first pitch on LHN, lineup for Texas:
********
The No. 3 Longhorns (28-8) took the field intent on delivering a beatdown against Abilene Christian. Unfortunately for the overmatched away team, the baseball equivalent of Joe Golding and his trapping defense didn’t show up in the visiting dugout. Texas built a huge early lead, emptied the dugout to get its depth some reps and thoroughly dominated ACU (19-14) with an 18-0 victory. The 18 runs are the most Texas has scored this season, and Texas extended its winning streak to 11 games.
After three innings, Texas led 11-0. It didn’t take long for every Texas starter to cross home plate. The Longhorns feasted on ACU pitching and set the tone with a five-run first inning thanks to four RBI with two outs. Ivan Melendez is clearly living right. The junior designated hitter checked his swing with two outs in the bottom of the third, which resulted in a two-RBI single into right field. He’s now reached base in 11-straight games, and the hit put Texas ahead 11-0.
Speaking of streaks, Douglas Hodo started a home run streak when he drilled a solo homer into the left field bullpen. The blast, his second in consecutive games, put Texas ahead 12-0 in the fourth inning. He finished the game 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly, two runs and three RBI. After a slump not long ago, Hodo is doing a much better job of making consistent, hard contact.
On the mound, Ty Madden fired 5.0 scoreless innings and punched out eight. Primarily using his fastball-slider duo, Madden again had one inning where he lost his timing and control, which came in the top of the fourth after Texas batted for a long time and gave him an 11-0 lead. Unlike his start against Kansas State, though, Madden found his rhythm and timing.
In the first inning, Madden touched 99 MPH on a fastball to get a swinging strikeout to end the game. Later in the game, he worked in the 93-95 MPH range and the huge lead seemed to take away from some of his adrenaline on the mound. For a guy who has already thrown a lot of pitches this season, it was a wise move by Texas to get him out of the game after the fifth and Texas did the same with all its starting position players too. The hard-throwing righty generated 11 swings and misses, but his changeup remains a major work in progress and isn’t currently a usable third pitch.
When he’s made hard contact recently, which has occurred more than his batting average suggests, Trey Faltine has often encountered some bad batted-ball luck. I don’t think it was an accident Texas allowed him to leave the game on a high note after drilling a RBI double into left-center. Meanwhile, Mike Antico continued his strong performances in the batter’s box by going 2-for-2 with three runs, a RBI, a double and a walk.
“I’ll tell you what I was pretty pumped up about is our work today was good; our BP fungo was great. We came in right before the start of the game and the energy level was just, it was on. They're doing such a great job of just not playing the opponent, not concerned about that,” said David Pierce. “But just really being concerned about how we play because I think if they can get into the point of their measurement, their barometer being ourselves, I think we're on the right track. So we come in tomorrow, and they just need to understand that that's one game. You know, you can play that game and get beat two to one tomorrow. And so we'll just remind them of that and make sure that they're focused and put in the work.”
File away this nugget for later: freshman lefty Caden Noah made his first appearance in a long time and is now throwing a slider, which generated some really ugly things thanks to excellent, tight spin. Overall, 23 Longhorns appeared in the game. The two are scheduled to meet again tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. on LHN.
********
The No. 3 Longhorns (27-8) aim to extend their winning streak to 11 games tonight when they open a three-game series at home against Abilene Christian (19-13). First pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tonight on LHN with Saturday's game set to start at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday's at 1:00 p.m.
The No. 3 Longhorns (30-8) recorded their third-straight sweep, have now won 13-straight games and finished their homestand a perfect 10-0 by outscoring opponents 102-23. They’re now hitting .290/.401/.460 this season and are ready for the upcoming Big 12 gauntlet.
“I said at the beginning of the year that this team is different. And also said I had no idea how many games we're gonna win. But every single day, if we continue to do what we're doing, I like our chances. And I'm having a blast,” responded David Pierce when asked how much fun he’s having coaching this group.
Following a frustratingly quiet game in the batter’s box, which still resulted in a win, the Longhorns, here to get some work in at 8:00 a.m. this morning according to Mike Antico, returned to torturing Abilene Christian (19-16) pitching like ACU’s basketball team tortured UT guards with its pressure defense. It doesn’t make up for a shocking first-round upset in the NCAA Tournament, but the school’s baseball program did its part to provide Texas fans some revenge by outscoring ACU 32-2 and sweeping it with today’s 11-1 run-rule victory.
Texas delivered an early knockout punch in the first inning. Mike Antico led off the inning by beating out an infield single, stole second base, and moved to third on Mitchell Daly’s bunt. Zach Zubia walked to put runners on the corners, and Ivan Melendez put Texas on the board with a RBI double to left-center. With runners again on the corners, DJ Petrinsky, starting at catcher, lined a hard RBI single into left field and Douglas Hodo followed with a hard RBI single into right field. The Texas lead increased to 4-0 when Eric Kennedy’s force out allowed a runner to score.
Antico was in the middle of scoring the very next inning when he smacked a leadoff triple to the wall in right-center field. A soft fly ball off Daly’s bat dropped in for a RBI single, and after he stole second, he scored easily when Melendez hit a RBI triple.
Gifted an early 6-0 advantage, Kolby Kubichek had all the ingredients necessary to challenge ACU hitters and cruise through his outing with his sinker. However, the junior right-handed nibbled too much instead of consistently attacking and challenging hitters, which resulted in him needing 86 pitches through five innings.
That said, Kubichek, now 5-2 this season, limited ACU to just one run on five hits, two walks, one hit batter and two strikeouts. When he needed to, Kubichek repeatedly made quality pitches with runners on base and received some help from a sharp defense, especially Zubia at first base. Speaking of Zubia, big fella didn’t just flash some leather. He was due for a big fly, and smashed a solo bomb the opposite way in the fourth inning. Zubia kept his hands back on a breaking ball, extended his arms and put the barrel on the ball to lift it out, showcasing his impressive strength.
But Zubia wouldn’t be the only one to hit a homer today. Antico’s resurgence in the batter’s box was emphasized when the senior ripped a three-run homer out to right-center field in the fifth inning. The last couple weeks, Antico, who finished 3-for-4 with three RBI, three runs and a walk, has done a much better job of showcasing a shorter, quicker swing. He’s starting to get his very strong lower half into his swing more often, which is allowing him to drive the baseball to all parts of the field.
“The hard work, you know, it really pays off,” Antico said. “We really are all bought into the same ideas whether it be hitting or defense or pitching… We're all really bought into the same types of deals, and we just try to execute it when it comes game time. And that is all working for us.”
A couple things to keep an eye on: Cam Williams was removed from the game after the bottom of the sixth inning. After he scored from second on Zubia’s hit, Williams had a small limp as he walked back to the dugout and ran a little gingerly. Pierce said after the game he noticed Williams limping and Troy Tulowitzki was already ready to suggest pulling Williams from the game for precautionary reasons, which Pierce did. The issue didn’t sound serious, and Pierce didn’t seem concerned. On a collision at third base earlier, it looked like the runner may have forced Williams to roll his ankle.
Secondly, Drew Shifflet needed just six pitches to fire a perfect ninth inning. Since he and Texas worked to lower his arm angle, Shifflet has added some more life to his sinking fastball and could emerge as a valuable bullpen piece moving forward. I’m not saying Texas is going to Omaha, but remember what happened with Parker Joe Robinson in 2018? He lowered his arm angle and became a crucial piece of the bullpen puzzle.
*****
Sunday 12:10 p.m. update:
Sunday's lineup as Texas goes for its third-straight sweep.
*****
Saturday 5:50 p.m. update:
Baseball is a funny game. So, maybe it wasn’t a surprise after a season-high 18 runs scored last night, the No. 3 Longhorns (29-8) barely missed barreling pitches in a handful of at-bats and then watched hard contact repeatedly find a glove. But as they’ve done for a long while now, Texas found a way to win a low-scoring game over Abilene Christian, 3-1. It has now won 12-straight games.
“I just think that anybody that understands this game should have expected a close game,” said David Pierce.
ACU (19-15) quickly erased any possibility of being shut out back-to-back games with a first-inning run. However, Texas starter Tristan Stevens then immediately established Abilene Chrisitan would return to seeing a bunch of zeros on the scoreboard. The righty showcased his excellent control by firing 62 of his 88 pitches for strikes, and did so with all three pitches - fastball, slider and changeup. In addition to issuing zero free passes, Stevens allowed just five hits and struck out five. He’s now thrown 24.2-straight innings without issuing a free pass.
Given he threw so many pitches without stress, Stevens probably could have gone the distance. But Texas handed the ball in the top of the eighth inning to freshman Tanner Witt with a 2-1 lead. Witt proceeded to fire 2.0 scoreless frames and continued to look improved for the second time this week.
Texas finally broke through with a run in the sixth inning. It wasn’t for lack of good contact; the Longhorns simply had some bad luck in addition to barely missing some pitches and skying them in the air. Zach Zubia and Ivan Melendez hit back-to-back one-out singles through the right side of the infield to put runners on the corners, and ACU then issued back-to-back walks to force in a run. But Cam Williams just missed a pitch with two outs and the bases loaded, which resulted in a high fly out to left field.
In the bottom of the seventh, Texas grabbed the lead. Trey Faltine, who opened the inning with a walk, stood on second with two outs and scored when Zubia kept his hands back on a changeup and hit a hard RBI single through the middle of the infield. Texas added a run in the eighth when Williams found a better part of the barrel and drove a RBI double to the wall in left-center.
Faltine was in the middle of perhaps the biggest play of the game. In the top of the eighth inning, Grayson Tatrow burned Mike Antico with a line drive to the deepest part of the park in left-center. Antico fired the ball into Faltine, who saw the runner trying to stretch a double into a triple. The UT shortstop fired a hard throw into third base and Williams made a very athletic play to tag the runner for the second out.
The 3-1 lead was more than enough for Witt in the ninth inning. He punched out two in a perfect frame and put an exclamation point on an impressive collective pitching performance when he struck out the final hitter with a high heater.
“I truly believe that this team is that,” responded Pierce when asked about the team’s mindset of finding a way to win no matter the situation. “They have a big blowout win last night. They’re in a tough one, and down one to nothing most of the game and then just chipped away. And we still really got very little offense, but we got enough to win the game. And that says a lot about our team. You can look at multiple ways to win the game, defensive and pitching dominated today. We had to make a great play to prevent them from potentially tying the ballgame and we did it. And so you know, the no panic mentality is fine. This is a very loose team as well.”
Offensively, the Longhorns had more walks (7) than strikeouts (6). Mitchell Daly hit very hard liners three times with two of them falling in for singles; Faltine made hard contact three times, and Williams showed signs of breaking out again with his eighth-inning line drive after getting just an inch or two under pitches earlier in the game.
*******
Saturday 2:00 p.m.:
Game two, 2:30 p.m. first pitch on LHN, lineup for Texas:
********
The No. 3 Longhorns (28-8) took the field intent on delivering a beatdown against Abilene Christian. Unfortunately for the overmatched away team, the baseball equivalent of Joe Golding and his trapping defense didn’t show up in the visiting dugout. Texas built a huge early lead, emptied the dugout to get its depth some reps and thoroughly dominated ACU (19-14) with an 18-0 victory. The 18 runs are the most Texas has scored this season, and Texas extended its winning streak to 11 games.
After three innings, Texas led 11-0. It didn’t take long for every Texas starter to cross home plate. The Longhorns feasted on ACU pitching and set the tone with a five-run first inning thanks to four RBI with two outs. Ivan Melendez is clearly living right. The junior designated hitter checked his swing with two outs in the bottom of the third, which resulted in a two-RBI single into right field. He’s now reached base in 11-straight games, and the hit put Texas ahead 11-0.
Speaking of streaks, Douglas Hodo started a home run streak when he drilled a solo homer into the left field bullpen. The blast, his second in consecutive games, put Texas ahead 12-0 in the fourth inning. He finished the game 2-for-2 with a sacrifice fly, two runs and three RBI. After a slump not long ago, Hodo is doing a much better job of making consistent, hard contact.
On the mound, Ty Madden fired 5.0 scoreless innings and punched out eight. Primarily using his fastball-slider duo, Madden again had one inning where he lost his timing and control, which came in the top of the fourth after Texas batted for a long time and gave him an 11-0 lead. Unlike his start against Kansas State, though, Madden found his rhythm and timing.
In the first inning, Madden touched 99 MPH on a fastball to get a swinging strikeout to end the game. Later in the game, he worked in the 93-95 MPH range and the huge lead seemed to take away from some of his adrenaline on the mound. For a guy who has already thrown a lot of pitches this season, it was a wise move by Texas to get him out of the game after the fifth and Texas did the same with all its starting position players too. The hard-throwing righty generated 11 swings and misses, but his changeup remains a major work in progress and isn’t currently a usable third pitch.
When he’s made hard contact recently, which has occurred more than his batting average suggests, Trey Faltine has often encountered some bad batted-ball luck. I don’t think it was an accident Texas allowed him to leave the game on a high note after drilling a RBI double into left-center. Meanwhile, Mike Antico continued his strong performances in the batter’s box by going 2-for-2 with three runs, a RBI, a double and a walk.
“I’ll tell you what I was pretty pumped up about is our work today was good; our BP fungo was great. We came in right before the start of the game and the energy level was just, it was on. They're doing such a great job of just not playing the opponent, not concerned about that,” said David Pierce. “But just really being concerned about how we play because I think if they can get into the point of their measurement, their barometer being ourselves, I think we're on the right track. So we come in tomorrow, and they just need to understand that that's one game. You know, you can play that game and get beat two to one tomorrow. And so we'll just remind them of that and make sure that they're focused and put in the work.”
File away this nugget for later: freshman lefty Caden Noah made his first appearance in a long time and is now throwing a slider, which generated some really ugly things thanks to excellent, tight spin. Overall, 23 Longhorns appeared in the game. The two are scheduled to meet again tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. on LHN.
********
The No. 3 Longhorns (27-8) aim to extend their winning streak to 11 games tonight when they open a three-game series at home against Abilene Christian (19-13). First pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. tonight on LHN with Saturday's game set to start at 2:30 p.m. and Sunday's at 1:00 p.m.
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