No. 1 Texas beat Alabama 6-1, improving to 8-0 on the season

The No. 1 Texas Longhorns are firing on all cylinders.

The No. 1 Texas Longhorns are firing on all cylinders early in the new season. Texas took down Alabama 6-1 on Sunday to complete the series sweep and improve to 8-0.

The pitching staff continued its dominance over the weekend, holding the Tide to just one run in three games. Texas has only allowed four earned runs in eight games.

Tanner Witt backed up fantastic starts from Pete Hansen and Tristian Stevens with a gem of his own. Witt allowed just one run on four hits while striking out nine Bama hitters in six innings of work. His final strikeout of the game got the momentum back on Texas’ side.

The offense took the lead for good in the bottom half of the sixth as Trey Faltine drove in two on a laser to left field. Dylan Campbell followed with an RBI single as Texas broke the game open 4-1.

Three clean innings out of the bullpen from Lucas Gordan and Aaron Nixon along with a couple of insurance runs gave Texas the 6-1 victory.

Up next is a mid-week trip to Sam Houston State on Tuesday.

 

Ivan Melendez hits two massive home runs as Texas completes the sweep of Rice

Texas outscored Rice 36-3 over the weekend.

The opening weekend of 2022 could not have gone any better for No. 1 Texas.

The Longhorns dominated the Rice Owls 14-2 on Sunday to complete the three-game sweep. Texas outscored Rice by a total of 36-3 on the series.

Tanner Witt picked up the win in his first career start. Witt battled through some traffic most of the day but limited the Owls to just one run over five innings. He struck out his fourth Owl of the day with two runners on to keep the Texas lead at 2-1 in the fourth.

The Texas offense exploded after Witt’s big strikeout. Trey Faltine led off the bottom half of the fourth with a laser over the left field wall. Four batters later Ivan Melendez sent a three-run bomb over the monster to extend Texas’ lead to 9-1.

The “Hispanic Titanic” would add another three-run homer two innings later as the Horns cruised to a 14-2 victory.

Key stats:

  • SP Tanner Witt: 5.0 IP, five strikeouts and one earned run allowed.
  • 1B Ivan Melendez: 2-4, six RBI and two home runs
  • LF Eric Kennedy: 2-3, four runs scored
  • SS Trey Faltine: 1-4, home run and two RBI

Up next for Texas is a road trip to Texas A&M Corpus-Christi for two mid-week games against the Islanders.

No. 1 Texas dominates Rice 15-1, improves to 2-0 on the season

Texas has looked the part in the first two games of the season.

The No. 1 ranked Texas Longhorns have looked the part in the first two games of the season.

Following up a 7-0 opening night victory, Texas displayed a fantastic offensive performance on Saturday. The Horns jumped out on the Owls for 15 runs on 10 hits en route to a 15-1 victory.

Senior right-hander Tristan Stevens set the tone on the mound for Texas. He stayed ahead of hitters, mixing in a nice slider to keep the Owls off balance. A beautiful relay from the Texas defense kept Rice off the board in the second.

Stevens finished his outing with six shutout innings, spacing out three hits and a couple of walks.

Much of the Texas offense was provided from the bottom lineup today. Eight-nine hitters Trey Faltine and Murphy Stehley combined for five hits and seven RBI.

Tomorrow the Horns look to complete the three-game sweep over the Owls. Tanner Witt is set to pitch with preseason All-American closer Aaron Nixon still available behind him.

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Texas Baseball: Predicting the opening day lineup

Texas’ lineup is loaded with talent, depth and experience.

Texas’ starting pitching may be making up most of the offseason headlines but the Horns lineup is loaded with experience and quality depth.

Replacing centerfielder Mike Antico, first baseman Zach Zubia and third baseman Cam Williams will be no easy task.

The addition of Kansas transfer Skyler Messinger should help fill the void at third base while last season’s designated hitter Ivan Melendez will slide into the first base role. Super senior Austin Todd is back from injury and will work his way into the outfield in place of Antico.

That leaves the designated hitter role open for competition. Sophomore Dylan Campbell and senior Murphy Stehly are among the front runners to win the job. Left-handed hitters Jack O’Dowd and Gavin Kash could work their way into the lineup in certain matchups.

The amount of talent on this roster gives David Pierce lots of flexibility in his lineups. Here is our prediction on what the opening day lineup will look like against Rice on Feb. 18.

Highlights from Saturday’s Alumni Game as the Texas Exes show out

The Texas Alumni held off the current Longhorns in an offensive slugfest.

No. 1 Texas baseball welcomed back 15 former players for the annual Alumni Game on Saturday.

The Texas Exes jumped out to an early lead on the current roster and held on for an 8-6 victory. Both offenses swung the bat well as the teams combined for 14 runs and 21 hits.

The star of the show was Sophomore Dylan Campbell, who started for the Alumni team. Campbell went 4-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored. His three-run bomb off Pete Hansen in the second inning put the Alumni squad up 4-0.

David Hamilton (2017-2019) added on to the alumni lead going 2-3 with two runs scored.

The current squad started to heat up in the middle innings.

Murphy Stehly launched a solo home-run to lead off the third inning. Mitchell Daly and Ivan Melendez followed with extra-base hits to make the score 6-2.

Texas scored runs in the next three innings to cut the lead to 7-6 on an Eric Kennedy two-run single.

The Alumni squad would respond with a run of their own as last season’s centerfielder Mike Antico (2021) hit a moonshot over the right-field wall to extend the lead to 8-6.

The current Horns would threaten in the bottom half of the seventh but Duke Ellis (2018-2020) would rob Trey Faltine of a game-tying base hit.

Here are some of the highlights of Saturday’s ballgame:

Texas Baseball: Seven Longhorns named to preseason All-Big 12 team

Texas has the pieces to have another great season in 2022.

The 2022 Texas Longhorns are ranked preseason No. 1 by most publications and for good reason. This team has a loaded roster stacked with elite pitching depth and experience.

The preseason All-Big 12 team shows how talented Texas’ roster is.

The Longhorns have seven of the 18 players named to the list. The most in the conference by a wide margin.

  • C Silas Ardoin
  • 2B Mitchell Daly
  • SS Trey Faltine
  • 1B/DH Ivan Melendez
  • P Pete Hansen
  • P Tristian Stevens
  • P Aaron Nixon

Junior pitcher Pete Hansen was named Big 12 preseason pitcher of the year. An honor awarded to former Longhorn Ty Madden a season ago. Hansen appeared in 19 games in 2021 finishing 9-1 with a 1.88 ERA.

Hansen will be joined in the weekend rotation with 2021 first-team All-Big 12 pitcher Tristian Stevens and freshman All-American Tanner Witt.

Texas will open the season at home against Rice on Feb. 18.

Click here for a full 2022 schedule breakdown.

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Texas Baseball: Horns rank No. 1 in preseason poll

Expectations are high for David Pierce and the Longhorns this year.

The college baseball season is just around the corner and expectations in Austin are as high as ever.

Collegiate Baseball Newspaper ranked Texas as their No. 1 team in the county in a preseason poll they released on Monday.

After a heartbreaking loss in the semifinals of the College World Series a year ago, the Horns will return a major core of that team. Seven position players and four key pitchers will all be back at the Disch in the spring.

The 2022 Longhorns will be stacked with MLB talent. Collegiate Baseball Newspaper has seven Longhorns on their preseason All-American teams:

  • LHP Pete Hansen
  • RHP Tristen Stevens
  • RHP Tanner Witt
  • RHP Aaron Nixon
  • 1B Ivan Melendez
  • SS Trey Faltine
  • 2B Mitchell Daly

David Pierce has done a masterful job with the program since taking over for legend Augie Garrido. Since the start of the 2020 season, Texas is 67-20 with a Big 12 championship and an Omaha appearance.

Click here for a full breakdown of Texas’ 2022 schedule.

Contact/Follow us @LonghornsWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Texas news, notes and opinions.

Texas Baseball: Review of the three-game series vs. Houston

A review of the three-game series between the Texas Longhorns and Houston Cougars.

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The No. 21 Texas Longhorns (7-5) played a three-game series against the Houston Cougars (7-4) this past weekend, where Texas won two of three contests.

The first two games were split between both schools and were fairly low scoring. The Longhorns won game one by a score of 1-0 behind a stellar performance by Texas pitcher Ty Madden. The Cougars stole game two with a walk-off in extra innings to end the game 3-2. Game three, however, not only gave the Longhorns a series win, but they defeated Houston in dominant fashion 8-2.

In game one, the lone run for Texas came from a bases-loaded walk in the top of the eighth inning. The star of the game was pitcher Ty Madden (2-1) who pitched a complete game, giving up only two hits and a career-high 14 strikeouts.

In game two, Houston took an early 1-0 lead run in the bottom of the second, but Texas would rally behind an Austin Todd single and score a run in both the fifth and sixth innings.

The game stayed tied with two runs each, which forced extra innings until Houston’s Tyler Bielamowicz ended the game with a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th.

With the series tied at 1-1, Texas looked to close out the series strong on Sunday. Unlike the first two contests, game three didn’t come down to the wire as the Longhorns blew out the Cougars.

As a team, the Longhorns had seven hits on 31 at-bats (.226) in game three, highlighted by Trey Faltine who was .500 for the day with 2 RBI’s and a one-run homer in the top of the ninth to put the cherry on top.

Kolby Kubichek (2-1) pitched 6.0 innings on Sunday, allowing only two runs on five hits with nine strikeouts.

The Longhorns will host a one-game series against Sam Houston State on Tuesday. They’ll then begin an important three-game series against No. 12 South Carolina on Friday in Austin.

Texas Baseball: Five early freshman standouts

The 2021 baseball season is still young, but these Texas Longhorns are making an immediate impact.

It’s still early in the season, but the No. 19 Texas Longhorns (5-4) have plenty of impressive players on the roster including Zach Zubia, Cam Williams and Ty Madden. What’s been even more impressive has been the play of the Texas freshmen at this point.

It’s always key to get solid play from your upperclassmen, but when the young talent is able to step up and contribute it’s encouraging for both the short and long-term future of the program. While some of these young players have contributed as starters, others are making their presence felt in relief.

Since last season was cancelled due to the outbreak of COVID-19, players were granted an extra year of eligibility, therefore some of the players on this list did appear in the shortened season last year.

Let’s take a look at which young players have been contributing the most up to this point and will likely continue to make their presence felt as the season progresses.

Texas players react to cancellations amid Coronavirus outbreak

Several players expressed their feelings on social media regarding the Coronavirus and its impact on Texas athletics.

It feels as if the entire world is amid an unknown, fluid situation that creates a variety of emotions. Continue reading “Texas players react to cancellations amid Coronavirus outbreak”