Tag: texas baseball

Texas baseball drops its fourth straight in loss to Texas A&M, 9-2

Texas baseball hasn’t been all that competitive against top teams.

Texas baseball lost its fourth straight game on Tuesday. The Longhorns fell to the surging Texas A&M Aggies who in contrast are off to a scorching start.

The four-game stretch has seen Texas lose to good teams, but the Longhorns were completely outclassed in all four matchups. From a blown eight-run lead against Vanderbilt to a late inning lead against Texas State, head coach David Pierce’s team couldn’t capitalize even when it had an advantage.

In fairness to Pierce and company, top programs go through tough stretches. It’s normal for good teams to lose several games simply because baseball involves multiple variables. Even so, blown leads, unreliable performance and not playing up to top competition are indicators that a baseball team might not succeed in the postseason.

Texas can still improve, but the early start to the season portends what could be another disappointing postseason for college baseball’s most storied program. The team will need focused effort to live up to its high aspirations.

Texas baseball gets swept at Astros Foundation College Classic

Texas opponents sat the Longhorns down one, two, three in the three-game showcase.

The Texas baseball squad went winless this weekend in the Astros Foundation College Classic. What looked to be a tremendous opportunity to bolster its NCAA tournament resume resulted in a three-game sweep.

The Longhorns’ bats have struggled in the early going this season, but it was the pitching that led to the three losses. The pitching staff allowed 31 runs in the three games capped by a 14-11 loss to Vanderbilt on Sunday.

Texas didn’t lose for lack of offensive power. The Longhorns held a 10-9 lead heading into the ninth inning of Saturday’s game against Texas State before allowing two runs in the final inning. On Sunday, the team blew an 11-3 lead through four innings to allow 11 unanswered runs to end the game.

There’s plenty of baseball left to play, and one weekend won’t define how far the team can go in the postseason. But the three games illustrate just how far Texas is from competing atop college baseball this season.

The Longhorns will next face Texas A&M on Tuesday.

Texas baseball begins most exciting stretch of the season Friday

It doesn’t get any better for Texas baseball in the regular season than the next seven games.

The Texas baseball program approaches the most exciting part of the schedule. In the process, the Longhorns will get a glance at their future baseball conference.

Texas kicks off a loaded seven-game stretch on Friday. The team begins the Astros Foundation College Classic on that day against reigning national champions in the LSU Tigers before facing Texas State and Vanderbilt on the following days.

The results of the games won’t determine the success of the season but will give an idea of the team’s postseason chances.

After facing two of the SEC’s best baseball teams in Vanderbilt and LSU, the Longhorns head home from Houston to face the Texas A&M Aggies for a Tuesday night game. Despite the Aggies’ failures in other sports, head coach Jim Schlossnagle has built a strong baseball program in College Station.

The Longhorns follow the four-game stretch with a road trip to Lubbock to face the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a game with potential Big 12 ramifications.

The seven-game stretch provides an exciting opportunity for Texas to face some of college baseball’s best teams, but could also come with a handful of losses. Given that the Longhorns only face LSU, Texas State, Vanderbilt and Texas A&M once each, we could see several coin flip games fall in the favor of Texas opponents.

Despite the potential downside of the tougher portion of the schedule, it provides an opportunity to build an NCAA tournament resume. Should Texas win three of four in the four nonconference games, it could position the team for high tournament seeding.

The Longhorns are about to face the most exciting portion of their schedule. They’ll look to leave the seven games with more wins than losses.

Social media reacts to Jalin Flores’ grand slam into the Yeti Yard

Friday evening was the largest opening day crowd in school history.

It was an electric Friday evening at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin. Continue reading “Social media reacts to Jalin Flores’ grand slam into the Yeti Yard”

Texas baseball begins quest for trip No. 39 to College World Series

Texas’ final baseball season in the Big 12 and journey to Omaha starts Friday night.

Baseball excellence resumes in Austin on Friday night. The Texas Longhorns will open their final Big 12 baseball season with a nonconference battle with San Diego Toreros, the university that produced MLB star Kris Bryant, at Disch-Falk Field.

The Longhorns are widely viewed as a contender to make the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska. The program is head and shoulders above the rest of college baseball in World Series appearances with 38. They will look to make it 39 in 2024.

The upcoming season marks the end of Big 12 baseball for Texas after playing in the league since 1997. It sets up big matchups with recent baseball rivals TCU and Texas Tech among others.

Starting pitcher Labarron Johnson Jr. leads the Longhorns into what projects to be a memorable season. Fellow pitcher Tanner Witt, outfielder Porter Brown, third baseman Peyton Powell, outfielder Jared Thomas and second baseball Jack O’Dowd return as key players for the team.

Freshman Will Gasparino was at one point given a Top-100 draft rating, but instead chose to play outfield for Texas. The top prospect could play a big role in improving the Texas lineup in 2024.

The schedule features plenty of teams that should fire up Texas faithful. The Astros Foundation College Classic at Minute Maid park gives the Longhorns matchups with the LSU Tigers, Texas State Bobcats and Vanderbilt Commodores. That slate begins with the Tigers on Mar. 1.

LSU, of course, comes off a national title victory in 2023. Vanderbilt has made two of the last four World Series finals and won it all in 2019 while Texas State has been a program on the rise in recent seasons. The trio of games won’t determine the success of the season, but will provide NCAA tournament-quality opponents early in the year.

Texas follows the classic invitational with Texas A&M at home on March 5. Next, the team faces a three-game road battle over that weekend with Texas Tech March 8-10.

In other notable games for the year, the Longhorns will play host to the Washington Huskies (Mar. 15-17), TCU Horned Frogs (April 19-21) and Oklahoma State Cowboys (May 3-5). The team will face Oklahoma in Norman, April 26-28.

Texas has the pieces to contend for Omaha again in 2024. They begin that championship push on Friday against San Diego at 7 p.m. CT on the Longhorn Network.

Former Longhorns 1B Brandon Belt reportedly a Texas Rangers target

Former Longhorns baseball player Brandon Belt could be coming back to one MLB team in Texas.

One former Texas Longhorns baseball player might be headed back to his home state. The Texas Rangers have reportedly discussed bringing veteran first baseman Brandon Belt to Arlington, Texas.

The homecoming for Belt should bring a positive reception. The former Longhorns standout earned several honors while in Austin. Among those honors were Big 12 Championship Most Outstanding Player and All-Big 12 team honorable mention.

While in Austin, Belt batted .321 for his career with a .399 on base percentage. The gifted athlete also posted a 4.19 ERA in one season as a pitcher on the Forty Acres.

The Longhorn legend has continued his strong play even late into his career. Since 2020, Belt ranks No. 5 among current MLB first basemen in on base percentage, No. 6 in slugging percentage, No. 4 in on base plus slugging plus and No. 2 in walk percentage.

Belt played a significant role in Texas’ runner up season in 2009 where the Longhorns fell to the LSU Tigers for a College World Series title. His knack for championship baseball carried over to the major leagues where Belt won World Series titles in 2012 and 2014 with the San Francisco Giants.

The productive player’s former manager Bruce Bochy is likely a leading voice in discussions about bringing Belt back to Texas. He would likely add a clubhouse leader to the fold that Bochy can trust.

Brandon Belt could be coming back to Texas. We will keep an eye on where he lands for the 2024 baseball season.

Texas baseball lands Notre Dame pitching transfer Will Mercer

The Longhorns were able to add an experienced arm from the transfer portal.

While the Longhorns are still likely feeling the sting of their fluky loss to Stanford in Palo Alto they did recently receive some positive news for next season.

Notre Dame left-handed pitcher Will Mercer has announced his commitment to transfer to Texas.

Mercer stands in at 6-foot-1, 210-pounds and compiled a 3-1 record (2.43 ERA) in 17 appearances. He did most of his work out of the bullpen for Notre Dame this past season, and pitched a total of 33.1 innings with 37 strikeouts and 14 walks.

 

Mercer unfortunately missed his freshman season at Notre Dame in 2019 due to an injury, but did make four starts in the shortened COVID-19 season in 2020. He had 5.93 ERA and a 1-0 record in 13.2 total innings pitched.

Mercer has some familiarity with one current Longhorn as he is a Houston Strake Jesuit product, a high school teammate of Texas outfielder Dylan Campbell.

The Longhorns will look to return to Omaha for the third time in four years next season after missing out this year.

Texas shortstop Mitchell Daly enters the transfer portal

Mitchell Daly looks for a change of scenery after a three-year run at Texas.

Texas shortstop Mitchell Daly is in the transfer portal as of Friday morning. The key piece of the Longhorns baseball program over the last three seasons is looking for a change of scenery.

Daly batted .263 over his career at Texas in 171 starts for the team. After a strong 2021 saw him hit for a strong .316 average, the two years that followed saw some struggles at the plate.

Certainly, Daly is a loss for the team at baseball’s most premium position outside of pitcher. The leadership one would assume he brings to the team will be difficult to replace. So, too, will be the lost experience the Longhorns will have at the position.

If there’s one thing the past season illustrated for Texas, it’s that head coach David Pierce is capable of replacing lost talent and production. Though we were critical of Pierce in the offseason and after a slow start, he put together as good a season as one could have expected.

Texas will look to retool at the position following a regular season Big 12 title and strong postseason performance.

Where the Stanford heartbreak ranks among worst losses for Texas athletics

Two heartbreaking losses in 2023 for the big three men’s sports thus far are among the worst in recent memory.

On Monday, Texas’ baseball team saw their season come to an end in what can only be considered one of the most heartbreaking ways in school history. Continue reading “Where the Stanford heartbreak ranks among worst losses for Texas athletics”