Freshmen Shine for Texas Longhorns Baseball

Texas Longhorns baseball is just four games into the 2015 season, but a handful of new faces have already generated some excitement.

Freshmen Kyle Johnston, Tyler Schimpf, Michael Cantu and Jake McKenzie played pivotal roles in the series with the Rice Owls.

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McKenzie and Schimpf worked a combined 3.2 scoreless innings of relief on Saturday. With the starters on a pitch count early in the season, it was a foregone conclusion that the bullpen would see extensive work in a four-game series. Augie Garrido and Skip Johnson need to find guys who can fill this role besides lefties Travis Duke and Ty Culbreth. Senior Kirby Bellow, another lefty, came on to work four-plus innings after not pitching at all in 2014. It appears Texas has corned the market on left-handed pitchers.

Not surprising, Garrido had to turn to the freshmen pitchers with Morgan Cooper done for year and Ty Marlow working his way back from UCL surgery. And it’s no small feat that McKenzie and Schimpf shut down a very good Rice team. The Owls are always in contention for the postseason. This bodes well for the youngsters as they could be called upon routinely until they either falter or the starters go deeper into games.

Texas Longhorns /

Texas Longhorns

Cantu is an exciting prospect much like fellow catcher Tres Barrera was last year. Cantu appeared in two games and collected hits in both. At 6-foot-3 and 237 pounds you might mistake him for a linebacker on the football team. If he can continue to handle the bat, Garrido can spell Barrera from behind the plate and keep his bat in the lineup at DH. Last season the Longhorns didn’t get much offense from the reserve catchers. Cantu has the ability to change that. Let’s not forget another catcher, freshman Michael McCann had the game-winning hit on Sunday. The catching trio might be the strongest hitting position on the team.

But perhaps the guy who turned the most heads was Johnston. The right-hander from Flower Mound closed out the Owls on Sunday to preserve the 4-3 win. The buzz around Johnston was his electric fastball and poise on the mound, something that didn’t surprise Garrido.

"“[Kyle] Johnston, of the freshman pitchers, has had the most experience in that role and that’s why we saved him for that role, said Garrido. He has actually pitched a lot in high school as a closer. He looked really relaxed, and the mature sign of his relaxation and his confidence in himself was, first of all, even recognizing the pickoff sign, and then executing it to almost perfection. The timing was really good on that, he was really aggressive, but still under control. That might be the highlight of the whole weekend. There were a lot of good things, and there were a lot of negative things, but I thought his performance was really good.”"

The 2014 team had several freshmen play important roles on a team that surprised many with a deep run into the College World Series. This year’s team may be developing that same recipe for success.

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