Sunday 5:00 p.m. update:
For the second-straight week, the No. 9 Longhorns (17-7, 4-2) had an opportunity to sweep a Big 12 opponent and came up short. Today’s series-finale loss was a tougher pill to swallow for Texas as it came up frustratingly short with a 3-2 loss against rival Oklahoma (13-10, 1-2).
“Faced pretty good lefty that mixed it; throws a plus change up and we didn't score early. We had a baserunning mistake (Douglas Hodo being thrown out at third in the first inning on a ball hit to shortstop). We didn't execute in situational offense today; probably tried to do too much from my perspective,” said David Pierce. “Just putting some trust in situations and players, but you know what? I'm still okay with that. I thought Kolby pitched well enough to give us a chance to win. The bullpen was good again… just two ground ball double plays had a big effect on the game. Unfortunate. Great we won the series, but unfortunate today.”
It took a while for Texas starter Kolby Kubichek to settle in and find his timing and control on the mound. In the top of the third inning, Oklahoma took advantage. A one-out walk was followed by a double, and Texas then wisely elected to intentionally walk the scorching-hot Tyler Hardman to load the bases. A sacrifice fly put Oklahoma in front 1-0, and Kubichek had a chance to limit the damage. However, the redshirt sophomore fired a wild pitch in the turf, which allowed another run to score.
From that point, Kubichek settled in. The righty regained his rhythm with his delivery, started to get back online towards home plate, and fired strikes with his sinker. Over 6.2 innings, he gave up just two runs on three hits, four walks (two intentional), and struck out three. Following back-to-back subpar starts, Texas has to be encouraged by what Kubichek, who didn’t want to leave the game in the seventh inning at 85 pitches, showed today.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Longhorns threatened to grab the lead but were forced to settle for tying the game. Trey Faltine was hit by a pitch to begin the frame and Eric Kennedy walked with one out. OU called on its stud reliever, Justin Ruffcorn, and he caught Cam Williams looking on a 2-2 fastball low-and-away that missed its spot. Silas Ardoin was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Mike Antico’s infield single tied the game. However, pinch-hitter Dalton Porter whiffed at three-straight heaters.
Oklahoma was determined to avoid a sweep and rallied with two outs in the top of the ninth with three-straight singles off reliever Aaron Nixon. The final hard single hit the glove of a diving Williams and then trickled past an outstretched Trey Faline into shallow left field, which allowed Oklahoma to grab the lead.
Mitchell Daly, who was one of the best players for either team over the weekend and looks like a future star, worked a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth. But Zach Zubia’s hard grounder was right at the second baseman to start a 4-6-3 double play. Faltine then struck out swinging to end the game.
Although the Longhorns competed fairly consistently, it was a fairly pedestrian day in the batter’s box and the Longhorns didn’t threaten Oklahoma pitching nearly as much as they did yesterday. The rivalry games continue for Texas. On Tuesday, UT plays at Texas A&M (6 p.m.).
*****
Sunday 12:50 p.m. update:
Sunday, game three lineup as No. 9 Texas goes for the sweep over rival OU:
********
Saturday 9:45 p.m. update:
The struggles in the batter’s box opening weekend in Arlington feel like they were six months ago because the Longhorns have looked like a different club since. And the one guy, Cam Williams, who consistently looked confident, aggressive and ready to play in Arlington is leading the way for the Longhorns at the plate. What does a mentally tough team full of guys who put in the extra work look like? We’re seeing it.
“Cam Williams is by far the hardest worker I've ever met,” said David Pierce. “And it's every single day. He loves the game. He doesn't know a whole lot about other sports. All he wants to do is be a ballplayer.”
In front of an energetic and later jubilant home crowd, the No. 9 Longhorns (17-6, 4-1) blasted four homers for the first time since 2018 and hammered rival Oklahoma, 11-6. Texas goes for the Red River sweep tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.
“So for me, it all started with my preparation last night, being able to talk to my father about everything going on in my at-bats and then coming in this morning and being able to talk to my coaches and watch video and things like that,” said Williams about his 3-for-5 game with two homers and four RBI. “So having everyone around me, who would be able to help me out and become myself. I just want to keep improving.”
Cam Williams starred at UFCU Disch-Falk field first with the glove early in the game and then with the bat throughout. In the bottom of the sixth inning with his team trailing 4-3, the switch-hitting third baseman ripped a homer from the right side out to left field to tie the game. Williams was out in front of a first-pitch fastball, pulled that fastball foul nearly into Occupy LF, took a pitch, and was ready to jump all over a changeup.
“So that first at-bat, I felt comfortable. I’m finally starting to settle in. So, I get comfortable. I see my fastball. I never want to miss a fastball. I jump all over that. And then I know [because] I hooked it foul that I’m probably not going to get another one. I get a changeup and I just put a barrel to it, which is all coach asks me to do. He doesn’t ask me to hit home runs.”
Following a hard single off the bat of Silas Ardoin, Zach Zubia joined the home run party by sending a screaming rocket over the left-center fence just to the left of the batter’s eye. The Longhorns surged ahead with a 6-4 lead but were intent on doing more damage.
Lucas Gordon followed Texas starter Tristan Stevens, who gave up four runs in 6.0 innings on six hits, two walks and a career-high seven strikeouts, and pitched a scoreless seventh inning thanks in part to Williams and Mitchell Daly starting a slick 5-4-3 double play to erase a leadoff walk. In a left-on-left matchup to begin the bottom half of the inning, Eric Kennedy drilled his first homer of the season over the right field fence, and became the 13th different Longhorn to go deep in 2021.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Longhorns delivered an emphatic blow to win the series with a relentless two-out rally. Trey Faltine singled and scored on Douglas Hodo’s RBI double to the wall in left-center. Then, Kennedy plated Hodo with a hard single up the middle, which set the stage for Williams to remind Oklahoma (12-10, 0-2) pitchers he never, ever takes a pitch off. With a 3-0 green light, Williams, this time from the left side, slammed a fastball over the heart of the plate out to right field for a no-doubt homer that he paused to admire some out of the box.
“I wasn't sure if I was going to come up, but I was praying that I would,” Williams said about his eighth-inning at-bat. “And then I just wanted all my preparation to be for something this game, you know? You never want to go to sleep after and not know, you know? So, I get in there - three pitches, two were borderline but I didn't want them. And he gives me a 3-0 hit, and I knew I couldn't miss it. This is what I worked for. This is what God has given me. So, I'm going to take that.”
Each Texas starter besides Melendez reached base, and he actually hit the hardest ball of the night. He just didn’t hit it in the air. So far, Pierce has been able to push the right lineup buttons. Moving Faltine down to the No. 9 spot resulted in a 3-for-3 performance that included some excellent two-strike hitting. Ardoin continued to hammer the ball in the middle of the order.
Oklahoma didn’t go down without a fight in the top of the ninth, which forced Pierce to use Cole Quintanilla for a batter. But the 11-4 deficit after eight innings was too much for the Sooners to overcome despite them again jumping all over a Texas starter with two first-inning runs. Stevens settled in well following the first inning, and basically made just one costly mistake after, which resulted in a two-run homer.
Will the Longhorns be ready to capitalize on a sweep chance that evaded them last weekend? If tonight’s star has his way, they certainly will be.
“It's our mission from the beginning. We just want to sweep every series we get into. We all hate to lose here,” stated Williams. “We hate to lose even more than we love to win. We hate to lose. There's something about it that just burns us. It burns us real bad.”
******
Saturday 8:40 p.m. update:
Texas smashes four homers and beats OU, 11-6. Longhorns go for the sweep tomorrow at 1 p.m.
***
Saturday 5:05 p.m. update:
Game two lineup below and first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on LHN:
*****
Friday 11:45 p.m. update:
How about a little Red River drama on the diamond? The No. 9 Longhorns (16-6, 3-1) and rival Oklahoma Sooners (12-9, 0-1) traded strong bullpen performances and zeroes deep into a gorgeous night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. But the burnt orange and white would be the group jubilantly celebrating. Thanks to an excellent, competitive at-bat by Douglas Hodo, the Longhorns beat Oklahoma 4-3 in 11 innings.
“I just thought it was a great Friday night baseball game. Two really good teams going at it. What do you say? I mean, great pitching from both teams,” said David Pierce. “They made one mistake, one error, and we made one and ours costs us. But what I loved about our team is, you know, we got flat for about 30 seconds, and they just kind of bowed their neck and kept playing. Just a great job.”
Following Mitchell Daly’s two-out walk, Hodo put together his most impressive at-bat of the season. Down in the count 0-2, the starting outfielder was determined not to be beat. He took a ball, fouled off two pitches and then received a mistake he could hammer.
“I got myself down with two strikes swinging at a bad pitch, but just kept fouling off pitches trying to fight, stay in there and wait for a mistake. And he kind of left the slider where I could do some damage with it,” said Hodo about his game-winning at-bat.
A slider left up in the zone met Hodo’s barrel, and he sent a hard liner into the left-center gap. Daly, who doesn’t lack speed, was able to get a good break on contact with two outs, was waved around third and scored easily. The Longhorn team met Daly near home plate and then sprinted out towards second base and chased the game’s hero into center field.
“Made good contact with it and ended up in center field with my shirt off,” said Hodo about the moments after the big knock.
The moment wouldn’t have been possible without an excellent job done by the Texas bullpen. Taking over for Ty Madden, who needed 94 pitches to throw 6.0 stressful innings and gave up two runs on six hits, two walks and struck out six, the trio of Tanner Witt, Aaron Nixon and Cole Quintanilla gave up just one unearned run on one hit, three walks and struck out eight.
Witt gave up the unearned run because of his own mistake. With one out and Texas clinging to a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning, the freshman fired an errant pickoff throw to first base, which allowed the runner to hustle into third. Witt, whose first inning on the mound was as dominant as any inning by a Texas pitcher this season, responded by blowing away the next hitter, top hitter Tyler Hardman, with a fastball up out of the zone. It appeared Witt would escape when the next batter was down 1-2, but a wild pitch tied the game. Eventually, Nixon was brought in to record the final out of the eighth inning.
Nixon continues to show he has the mental makeup to handle the tough, late-game situations and needed just 39 pitches to toss 2.2 frames. As for Quinatnilla, he stuck out the only two batters he faced. Pierce spoke earlier this week about Quintanilla’s confidence growing and it sure looked like it tonight.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma jumped on Madden in the first inning for two runs before the preseason All-American began to settle in. Nothing really came too easy for the hard-throwing righty tonight. At times, he was brilliant with a fastball up to 98 MPH and a slider that flashed, but was a little too inconsistent. Exhausted from the mental load of the game, Madden didn’t hesitate to tell his staff to hand the ball to the bullpen for a clean seventh inning.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, Texas responded with three runs in the second. Zach Zubia blasted a no-doubt solo homer, although he struck out in four at-bats later. Following a Trey Faline single with one out, Mitchell Daly’s double scored a run and the duo that ultimately won the game provided another run when Hodo plated Daly with a single.
Pitching dominated this contest. You won’t find many pretty nights at the plate. But once again, UT’s competitiveness late in a tight game was better than its opponent’s. The two rivals are back in action tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. on Longhorn Network.
*******
First pitch at 7:00 p.m. on LHN between No. 9 Texas (15-6, 2-1) and Oklahoma (12-8, 0-0).
David Pierce said not to be surprised if the lineup changes some. Dylan Campbell gets the nod at DH at leadoff man.
For the second-straight week, the No. 9 Longhorns (17-7, 4-2) had an opportunity to sweep a Big 12 opponent and came up short. Today’s series-finale loss was a tougher pill to swallow for Texas as it came up frustratingly short with a 3-2 loss against rival Oklahoma (13-10, 1-2).
“Faced pretty good lefty that mixed it; throws a plus change up and we didn't score early. We had a baserunning mistake (Douglas Hodo being thrown out at third in the first inning on a ball hit to shortstop). We didn't execute in situational offense today; probably tried to do too much from my perspective,” said David Pierce. “Just putting some trust in situations and players, but you know what? I'm still okay with that. I thought Kolby pitched well enough to give us a chance to win. The bullpen was good again… just two ground ball double plays had a big effect on the game. Unfortunate. Great we won the series, but unfortunate today.”
It took a while for Texas starter Kolby Kubichek to settle in and find his timing and control on the mound. In the top of the third inning, Oklahoma took advantage. A one-out walk was followed by a double, and Texas then wisely elected to intentionally walk the scorching-hot Tyler Hardman to load the bases. A sacrifice fly put Oklahoma in front 1-0, and Kubichek had a chance to limit the damage. However, the redshirt sophomore fired a wild pitch in the turf, which allowed another run to score.
From that point, Kubichek settled in. The righty regained his rhythm with his delivery, started to get back online towards home plate, and fired strikes with his sinker. Over 6.2 innings, he gave up just two runs on three hits, four walks (two intentional), and struck out three. Following back-to-back subpar starts, Texas has to be encouraged by what Kubichek, who didn’t want to leave the game in the seventh inning at 85 pitches, showed today.
In the bottom of the eighth inning, the Longhorns threatened to grab the lead but were forced to settle for tying the game. Trey Faltine was hit by a pitch to begin the frame and Eric Kennedy walked with one out. OU called on its stud reliever, Justin Ruffcorn, and he caught Cam Williams looking on a 2-2 fastball low-and-away that missed its spot. Silas Ardoin was hit by a pitch to load the bases, and Mike Antico’s infield single tied the game. However, pinch-hitter Dalton Porter whiffed at three-straight heaters.
Oklahoma was determined to avoid a sweep and rallied with two outs in the top of the ninth with three-straight singles off reliever Aaron Nixon. The final hard single hit the glove of a diving Williams and then trickled past an outstretched Trey Faline into shallow left field, which allowed Oklahoma to grab the lead.
Mitchell Daly, who was one of the best players for either team over the weekend and looks like a future star, worked a leadoff walk in the bottom of the ninth. But Zach Zubia’s hard grounder was right at the second baseman to start a 4-6-3 double play. Faltine then struck out swinging to end the game.
Although the Longhorns competed fairly consistently, it was a fairly pedestrian day in the batter’s box and the Longhorns didn’t threaten Oklahoma pitching nearly as much as they did yesterday. The rivalry games continue for Texas. On Tuesday, UT plays at Texas A&M (6 p.m.).
*****
Sunday 12:50 p.m. update:
Sunday, game three lineup as No. 9 Texas goes for the sweep over rival OU:
********
Saturday 9:45 p.m. update:
The struggles in the batter’s box opening weekend in Arlington feel like they were six months ago because the Longhorns have looked like a different club since. And the one guy, Cam Williams, who consistently looked confident, aggressive and ready to play in Arlington is leading the way for the Longhorns at the plate. What does a mentally tough team full of guys who put in the extra work look like? We’re seeing it.
“Cam Williams is by far the hardest worker I've ever met,” said David Pierce. “And it's every single day. He loves the game. He doesn't know a whole lot about other sports. All he wants to do is be a ballplayer.”
In front of an energetic and later jubilant home crowd, the No. 9 Longhorns (17-6, 4-1) blasted four homers for the first time since 2018 and hammered rival Oklahoma, 11-6. Texas goes for the Red River sweep tomorrow at 1:00 p.m.
“So for me, it all started with my preparation last night, being able to talk to my father about everything going on in my at-bats and then coming in this morning and being able to talk to my coaches and watch video and things like that,” said Williams about his 3-for-5 game with two homers and four RBI. “So having everyone around me, who would be able to help me out and become myself. I just want to keep improving.”
Cam Williams starred at UFCU Disch-Falk field first with the glove early in the game and then with the bat throughout. In the bottom of the sixth inning with his team trailing 4-3, the switch-hitting third baseman ripped a homer from the right side out to left field to tie the game. Williams was out in front of a first-pitch fastball, pulled that fastball foul nearly into Occupy LF, took a pitch, and was ready to jump all over a changeup.
“So that first at-bat, I felt comfortable. I’m finally starting to settle in. So, I get comfortable. I see my fastball. I never want to miss a fastball. I jump all over that. And then I know [because] I hooked it foul that I’m probably not going to get another one. I get a changeup and I just put a barrel to it, which is all coach asks me to do. He doesn’t ask me to hit home runs.”
Following a hard single off the bat of Silas Ardoin, Zach Zubia joined the home run party by sending a screaming rocket over the left-center fence just to the left of the batter’s eye. The Longhorns surged ahead with a 6-4 lead but were intent on doing more damage.
Lucas Gordon followed Texas starter Tristan Stevens, who gave up four runs in 6.0 innings on six hits, two walks and a career-high seven strikeouts, and pitched a scoreless seventh inning thanks in part to Williams and Mitchell Daly starting a slick 5-4-3 double play to erase a leadoff walk. In a left-on-left matchup to begin the bottom half of the inning, Eric Kennedy drilled his first homer of the season over the right field fence, and became the 13th different Longhorn to go deep in 2021.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Longhorns delivered an emphatic blow to win the series with a relentless two-out rally. Trey Faltine singled and scored on Douglas Hodo’s RBI double to the wall in left-center. Then, Kennedy plated Hodo with a hard single up the middle, which set the stage for Williams to remind Oklahoma (12-10, 0-2) pitchers he never, ever takes a pitch off. With a 3-0 green light, Williams, this time from the left side, slammed a fastball over the heart of the plate out to right field for a no-doubt homer that he paused to admire some out of the box.
“I wasn't sure if I was going to come up, but I was praying that I would,” Williams said about his eighth-inning at-bat. “And then I just wanted all my preparation to be for something this game, you know? You never want to go to sleep after and not know, you know? So, I get in there - three pitches, two were borderline but I didn't want them. And he gives me a 3-0 hit, and I knew I couldn't miss it. This is what I worked for. This is what God has given me. So, I'm going to take that.”
Each Texas starter besides Melendez reached base, and he actually hit the hardest ball of the night. He just didn’t hit it in the air. So far, Pierce has been able to push the right lineup buttons. Moving Faltine down to the No. 9 spot resulted in a 3-for-3 performance that included some excellent two-strike hitting. Ardoin continued to hammer the ball in the middle of the order.
Oklahoma didn’t go down without a fight in the top of the ninth, which forced Pierce to use Cole Quintanilla for a batter. But the 11-4 deficit after eight innings was too much for the Sooners to overcome despite them again jumping all over a Texas starter with two first-inning runs. Stevens settled in well following the first inning, and basically made just one costly mistake after, which resulted in a two-run homer.
Will the Longhorns be ready to capitalize on a sweep chance that evaded them last weekend? If tonight’s star has his way, they certainly will be.
“It's our mission from the beginning. We just want to sweep every series we get into. We all hate to lose here,” stated Williams. “We hate to lose even more than we love to win. We hate to lose. There's something about it that just burns us. It burns us real bad.”
******
Saturday 8:40 p.m. update:
Texas smashes four homers and beats OU, 11-6. Longhorns go for the sweep tomorrow at 1 p.m.
***
Saturday 5:05 p.m. update:
Game two lineup below and first pitch scheduled for 5:30 p.m. on LHN:
*****
Friday 11:45 p.m. update:
How about a little Red River drama on the diamond? The No. 9 Longhorns (16-6, 3-1) and rival Oklahoma Sooners (12-9, 0-1) traded strong bullpen performances and zeroes deep into a gorgeous night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. But the burnt orange and white would be the group jubilantly celebrating. Thanks to an excellent, competitive at-bat by Douglas Hodo, the Longhorns beat Oklahoma 4-3 in 11 innings.
“I just thought it was a great Friday night baseball game. Two really good teams going at it. What do you say? I mean, great pitching from both teams,” said David Pierce. “They made one mistake, one error, and we made one and ours costs us. But what I loved about our team is, you know, we got flat for about 30 seconds, and they just kind of bowed their neck and kept playing. Just a great job.”
Following Mitchell Daly’s two-out walk, Hodo put together his most impressive at-bat of the season. Down in the count 0-2, the starting outfielder was determined not to be beat. He took a ball, fouled off two pitches and then received a mistake he could hammer.
“I got myself down with two strikes swinging at a bad pitch, but just kept fouling off pitches trying to fight, stay in there and wait for a mistake. And he kind of left the slider where I could do some damage with it,” said Hodo about his game-winning at-bat.
A slider left up in the zone met Hodo’s barrel, and he sent a hard liner into the left-center gap. Daly, who doesn’t lack speed, was able to get a good break on contact with two outs, was waved around third and scored easily. The Longhorn team met Daly near home plate and then sprinted out towards second base and chased the game’s hero into center field.
“Made good contact with it and ended up in center field with my shirt off,” said Hodo about the moments after the big knock.
The moment wouldn’t have been possible without an excellent job done by the Texas bullpen. Taking over for Ty Madden, who needed 94 pitches to throw 6.0 stressful innings and gave up two runs on six hits, two walks and struck out six, the trio of Tanner Witt, Aaron Nixon and Cole Quintanilla gave up just one unearned run on one hit, three walks and struck out eight.
Witt gave up the unearned run because of his own mistake. With one out and Texas clinging to a 3-2 lead in the top of the eighth inning, the freshman fired an errant pickoff throw to first base, which allowed the runner to hustle into third. Witt, whose first inning on the mound was as dominant as any inning by a Texas pitcher this season, responded by blowing away the next hitter, top hitter Tyler Hardman, with a fastball up out of the zone. It appeared Witt would escape when the next batter was down 1-2, but a wild pitch tied the game. Eventually, Nixon was brought in to record the final out of the eighth inning.
Nixon continues to show he has the mental makeup to handle the tough, late-game situations and needed just 39 pitches to toss 2.2 frames. As for Quinatnilla, he stuck out the only two batters he faced. Pierce spoke earlier this week about Quintanilla’s confidence growing and it sure looked like it tonight.
Meanwhile, Oklahoma jumped on Madden in the first inning for two runs before the preseason All-American began to settle in. Nothing really came too easy for the hard-throwing righty tonight. At times, he was brilliant with a fastball up to 98 MPH and a slider that flashed, but was a little too inconsistent. Exhausted from the mental load of the game, Madden didn’t hesitate to tell his staff to hand the ball to the bullpen for a clean seventh inning.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning, Texas responded with three runs in the second. Zach Zubia blasted a no-doubt solo homer, although he struck out in four at-bats later. Following a Trey Faline single with one out, Mitchell Daly’s double scored a run and the duo that ultimately won the game provided another run when Hodo plated Daly with a single.
Pitching dominated this contest. You won’t find many pretty nights at the plate. But once again, UT’s competitiveness late in a tight game was better than its opponent’s. The two rivals are back in action tomorrow evening at 5:30 p.m. on Longhorn Network.
*******
First pitch at 7:00 p.m. on LHN between No. 9 Texas (15-6, 2-1) and Oklahoma (12-8, 0-0).
David Pierce said not to be surprised if the lineup changes some. Dylan Campbell gets the nod at DH at leadoff man.
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