Texas notches season excessive in hits, doubles in 18-3 win over Texas Southern

JT Bowen, Basic Sports activities Reporter
April 26, 2023

Coming off the heels of a disappointing sweep at residence versus Oklahoma, Texas sorely wanted to get again within the win column earlier than two straight highway Huge 12 collection.

“We’ve gone by way of adversities like this earlier than,” Texas head coach David Pierce mentioned of the Oklahoma collection. “It was gut-wrenching, kicked us within the tail and we perceive it and so, in some unspecified time in the future you’ve gotta transfer on.”

Judging by Tuesday’s consequence, it appeared just like the Longhorns moved on.

Texas did its finest to avenge the weekend’s collection, setting new season highs in hits and doubles by way of seven innings en path to an 18-3 beatdown of Texas Southern on Tuesday night time. The Longhorns’ bats have been stable to start out and got here out smoking following rain delays with a nine-run third inning.

Texas raced out to a 5-0 lead by way of two innings because of a mix of stable hitting and pitching, however as junior Charlie Hurley took to the mound in reduction on the high of the third the rain began to come back down and followers headed for the higher decks.

After greater than an hour of delays, play resumed, and the Longhorns appeared able to go, assembling one in every of their best offensive innings of the season, scratching out a single, a pair of homers, and 5 doubles, 4 of which got here in consecutive at-bats. The Longhorns obtained wonderful hitting contributions from the complete lineup, capped off by junior shortstop Mitchell Daly’s three-run shot into the customer bullpen to make it a 14-0 recreation.

Whereas the hitting was terrific high to backside, redshirt junior third baseman Peyton Powell led the way in which for the Longhorns, opening up the scoring within the backside of the primary with one in every of his three doubles on the night time in a 3-4 outing. First baseman Jared Thomas additionally loved one in every of his higher nights of his freshman yr, launching his second profession homer, going 3-3 on the plate and scoring 4 runs.

Junior DJ Burke drew his first profession begin pitching for the Longhorns, and regardless of tossing simply two runless innings, Coach Pierce was happy with what he noticed.

“We’ve had some talks, and with DJ, I believe finally he might turn into a starter if that’s within the plans,” Pierce mentioned. “I simply instructed him to go on the market and compete for 2 innings, I’m not going to burn you for the weekend, and he did a very nice job.”

Sophomore Ace Whitehead tacked on a two-run single within the backside of the fifth to increase the Longhorn run rely to 16 earlier than Texas Southern answered to attain its second run of the night time. Redshirt junior left fielder Porter Brown scored on a bases loaded stroll and freshman pinch hitter Cade O’Hara’s first profession RBI got here on a sacrifice fly to punch in freshman Jayden Duplantier and rating Texas’s 18th and last run of the night time.

Texas’ soul-searching following the Oklahoma collection confirmed up in Tuesday’s consequence, and the Longhorns can be examined as soon as once more in a pivotal Huge 12 highway collection towards TCU.

“There’s sort of a watch opener on Sunday, and simply sort of refocus and principally allow them to know that there’s a regular, and we’re not going to simply accept that,” Pierce mentioned. “And in order that presentation is vital to how we current it and the way we strategy our work, and ensuring they perceive these requirements.”

Texas now sits at 28–15, with first pitch set for six p.m. Friday in Fort Price.