Sports blog information from USA TODAY.
USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques breaks down the top MLB storylines during spring training.
USA TODAY Sports’ Gabe Lacques breaks down the top MLB storylines during spring training.
The USA Today/Coaches poll has been released and the Texas Longhorns are currently ranked 22nd in the nation.
The Texas Longhorns baseball team has started off hot winning 13 of their first 16 games. In the Shriners Hospital for Children College Classic, the Longhorns beat the number six ranked Arkansas Razorbacks 8-7 and dropped a game to the 11th ranked LSU Tigers 4-3. The Longhorns have also played three weekend series going a perfect 9-0.
In the latest USA Today Coaches Poll that was released on March 9th, the Longhorns came in at number 22 in the poll. They are just two points based on votes behind the number 21 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide. Texas finished seven points ahead of Texas A&M who comes in at 23rd. The Aggies and Longhorns will have a one-game duel in College Station on March 31st.
Big 12 Teams in the top 25:
Following the five games left on their nine-game homestead, the Longhorns will travel to Frisco, Texas for a matchup with UT-Arlington. The team then starts Big 12 play with a trip to Norman for a three-game set with Oklahoma.
ETSU baseball team has several former KIL stars.
KNOXVILLE — When the University of Tennessee baseball team hosts East Tennessee State Tuesday night, several former high school stars from the Knoxville Area will have a homecoming.
The Buccaneers (12-2) and the Volunteers (14-2) have a longstanding rivalry, which will be renewed Tuesday at Lindsey Nelson Stadium with first pitch slated for 6 p.m.
Knoxville has a rich high school baseball tradition and many of those players head north to Johnson City to play for the Bucs upon finishing their respective prep careers in the Knoxville Interscholastic League and in surrounding counties.
ETSU has nine players with Knoxville Area ties on its 2020 roster.
Freshman infielder Ashton King and first-year pitchers Landon Smiddy and Owen Kovacs all played for Farragut High School. They all finished their high school careers on top as the Admirals won the 2019 Class AAA Sate Championship.
Hunter Loyd, a freshman pitcher out of Christian Academy of Knoxville, where he played for legendary coach Tommy Pharr, was a member of three consecutive state championship teams for the Warriors, who claimed back-to-back Division II-A crowns in 2018 and 2019 after capturing the Division I Class AA title in 2017.
Sean Kearney had a stellar career at Knoxville Catholic High School. Jackson Greer played high school ball at Knoxville Central. Bubba Hubbard, a junior college transfer from Walters State Community College, hails from Morristown.
Junior outfielder David Beam was a two-way star at Bearden as a pitcher and outfielder, while freshman catcher Noah Webb, a Kodak native, played high school ball at Sevier County.
In the final game of the three-game series between the Longhorns and Cal State Fullerton Titans, Texas showed off their power.
The Texas Longhorns and Cal State Fullerton Titans met for the third game of the weekend series. Texas took the first two games, looking for their third sweep of the season. Coy Cobb took the mound looking for his first win on the year.
After the scoreless top of the first inning, the Longhorns got the bats going early. A Trey Faltine double brought home a run on the legs of leadoff hitter Austin Todd to give Texas a 1-0 lead. With runners on second and third, Eric Kennedy came to the plate with an opportunity to give Texas a nice cushion to start off the game.
That’s a 3️⃣-spot in the 1st for your Horns thanks to RBI knocks from @TFaltine and @erockken21!
Texas 🔛🔝, 3-0! #HookEm pic.twitter.com/Cp2vmJarBe
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) March 8, 2020
Cobb would take the mound again in the top of the second inning but he would be pulled and Tristan Stevens would come on in relief as the Titans would tie it up before Stevens could retire the side. with the game now all tied at three, Austin Todd would come to bat to break the tie in the bottom of the second inning.
Get up and get out, @AustinTodd44!
Horns 🆙, 5-3, after two. #HookEm | #OwnTheDisch pic.twitter.com/zkMbOJji77
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) March 8, 2020
That gave Todd his first home run on the season and Texas led 5-3 after two. In the third Faltine would score again on a Murphy Stehly RBI ground out to short. It would be a throwing error by Faltine in the top of the next inning that would plate another Titan in Miguel Ortiz that brought them within two runs at 6-4.
The big cat Zach Zubia would drive home Todd in the bottom of the inning to get their three-run cushion back on the sacrifice fly to right field. That would give Zubia 20 RBI’s on the season. On the mound it would be four innings from Dawson Merryman that would allow Texas to take control. He gave up one unearned run and that would do it for the Titans offense.
Peyton Powell would give Texas their eighth run on the day with his first career home run in the sixth inning. To close it out, Andre Duplantier II would come in from third base to pitch the final frame. He faced the minimum with one strikeout to secure the sweep for Texas.
They will face Abilene Christian at DischFalk Field on Wednesday night before hosting another three-game weekend series against the New Mexico Lobos. Merryman improved to 3-0 on the year, picking up his second win of the series and lowering his ERA to 1.74.
2020 Tennessee baseball.
KNOXVILLE — After seeing their perfect record get blemished Friday, the Diamond Vols returned to the win column Saturday with 3-1 victory over Wright State at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Tennessee (14-1 and ranked No. 11 in the country) got home runs from Liam Spence and Max Ferguson as it avenged its first loss of the season, a 5-4 defeat at the hands of the Raiders (4-9).
Ferguson’s solo shot gave the Volunteers a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the third. Ferguson, went 2-for-4 Saturday against Wright State. He also had a double in the contest.
Tennessee took a 2-0 lead in the seventh when Liam Spence parked a solo shot over the left-field fence.
Wright State got on the board in the eighth when Gehrig Anglin scored on an errant pickoff throw by Vols’ pitcher Jackson Leath.
Drew Gilbert closed out the scoring in the bottom of the eighth with an RBI single that plated Luc Lipcius.
Leath threw 4.2 innings of relief to pick up the victory. He yielded an unearned run, four hits and two walks. He also struck out two.
Redmond Walsh fanned two of the three hitters he faced in the ninth en route to recording his second save of the 2020 campaign.
Tennessee’s Garrett Crochet made his season debut. He started and surrendered two hits and struck out six in 3.1 innings.
The Texas Longhorns have won their third straight weekend series at home after beating Cal State Fullerton 4-3.
The Texas Longhorns and Cal State Fullerton Titans met again at the Disch following the six-run explosion in the seventh inning on Friday night for the 6-1 victory. On Saturday afternoon, Ty Madden took the mound in hopes of getting the Longhorns another win in less dramatic fashion.
Madden was only able to pitch four innings with one earned run given up. After a JJ Cruz in the second inning gave the Titans an early 1-0 lead, Texas fired back with three runs in the bottom of the inning. Murphy Stehly sent a ball down the left field line that brought Eric Kennedy and Silas Ardoin around to score.
Two innings in the books and your Horns lead it, 3-1, thanks to this @MurphyStehly two-bagger. #HookEm | #OwnTheDisch 😤 pic.twitter.com/HPUzxqDKpz
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) March 7, 2020
In the fourth inning, the Titans would fire back to tie the game up at three. Leadoff hitter Zach Lew drove in two unearned runs as Cruz and Austin Schell scored on the single. That would be the last run to get across for the Titans and Texas would go to the bullpen in the fifth, ending Madden’s day.
BIG CAT! 🐅
Laying out for bunts since 2020. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/MltEuPgs9j
— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) March 7, 2020
The freshman pitching of duo of Pete Hansen and Andre Duplantier II along with Tristan Stevens would shut down the Titans. The trio of relievers allowed just two hits over the final five innings. Hansen went 3.2 innings with two strikeouts. Hansen has been a pleasant surprise this season with a WHIP (walks + hits per inning pitched) of 0.65 which is the best on the team.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, the Longhorns got a much needed run for the offense. After Douglas Hodo III worked a pinch hit walk, he came around to score on a single from Austin Todd. Todd was out on a run down as he got caught in no man’s land.
Austin Todd doing Austin Todd things.
4-3 Texas at the bottom of the 8th. pic.twitter.com/8DBYNNfrWc
— Longhorn Network (@LonghornNetwork) March 7, 2020
Duplantier came into the game in the ninth inning to close the door on the Titans offense. He faced the minimum with two strikeouts to give Texas the 4-3 win. Hansen earned his second win of the year. The Longhorns will go for their third sweep of the season and second-straight at the Disch.
2020 Tennessee baseball.
KNOXVILLE — A 13-game winning streak came to an end for the University of Tennessee baseball team Friday when the Volunteers dropped a 5-4 decision to Wright State at Lindsey Nelson Stadium.
Jake Rucker went 3-for-5 with a double, an RBI and a run scored, while Alerick Soularie went 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI.
Connor Pavalony gave Tennessee (13-1) a 1-0 lead with a solo home run in the bottom of the first inning.
The Raiders (4-8) took a 4-2 lead in the seventh before the Volunteers tied things with a pair in the eighth.
Wright State scored the winning run in the ninth on an unearned run.
Texas welcomes Cal State Fullerton to Austin this weekend. Meeting for the first time since the 2004 CWS, UT will be looking for revenge.
Texas welcomes Cal State Fullerton to Austin this weekend for the first weekend series in March. While the Longhorns have lost two straight games, they are sitting at 10-3 overall, having the third-most wins in the Big 12.
The Titans are struggling this season, only picking up four wins in 13 games. They have only won one series to this point, taking two out of three from Stanford to begin the season.
These two teams have a history as they met in the 2004 College World Series Finals. The Titans swept Texas, winning the two games 6-4 and 3-2. Meeting for the first time since then, the Longhorns will be looking for revenge 16 years later.
Here is a weekend preview for Texas baseball:
Game information
Dates: March 6-8, 2020
Times: Friday – 6:30 p.m. CST; Saturday – Noon CST; Sunday – 1:30 p.m. CST
Location: UFCU Disch-Falk Field Austin Texas
Watch: Longhorn Network
Listen: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM
Stream: ESPN App
Projected Pitching Matchups
Friday
Texas RHP Bryce Elder (2-1, 2.33) vs. CSF RHP Tanner Bibee (1-2, 1.93)
Saturday
Texas RHP Ty Madden (3-0, 1.71) vs. CSF RHP Tanner Luckham (2-0, 1.80)
Sunday Texas RHP Coy Cobb (0-0, 2.51) vs. CSF RHP Joe Magrisi (0-2, 3.63)
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What I’m Hearing: The Red Sox are shutting down Chris Sale for 10 days, the Yankees have no idea if Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Judge will be ready for Opening Day. Steve Gardner dives into both team’s injury bugs.
What I’m Hearing: The Red Sox are shutting down Chris Sale for 10 days, the Yankees have no idea if Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Judge will be ready for Opening Day. Steve Gardner dives into both team’s injury bugs.
A professional baseball team from South Korea has opted for an extended stay in Florida as the coronavirus continues to spread.
A professional baseball team from South Korea has opted for an extended stay in Florida as the coronavirus continues to spread.
