Texas Baseball: Bryce Elder proves MLB value, shuts out Boise State

The Boise State Broncos were the victim of a good Texas baseball team that is on fire to start out the season, and Bryce Elder shut them out.

The Texas baseball program got nothing short of a magnificent outing from one of their best players in the weekend series opener on Feb. 21, against the Boise State Broncos out of the Mountain West Conference. Boise State might be the most significant series to date for head coach David Pierce and Texas.

Entering this weekend series against the boys in blue, the Texas Longhorns baseball program carried a spotless record of 5-0. The Longhorns were coming off a win over the Lamar Cardinals on Feb. 19 at home at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Texas had two one-game series in the past week. They got wins over Lamar and the UTSA Roadrunners both at home at the Disch.

Texas is surely proving that they’re ready to turn the page after a down showing during the 2019 season. The Longhorns finished up as the worst team in the Big 12 in 2019 and with a rather mediocre .500 record. They are already looking much improved with a now perfect 6-0 record heading into the second matchup of a three-game weekend series against Boise State.

Boise State opened their 2020 regular season schedule with the Longhorns. It is very difficult to host home games in Boise, ID, during the month of February. Hence the Broncos will be playing their first series on the road before returning home initially on Feb. 28 to host a four-game series against the Northern Colorado Bears.

Ironically enough, Northern Colorado was the team that Texas men’s basketball opened up their regular season schedule with in 2019-20.

However, Boise State didn’t get off to their desired start this season in a 7-0 convincing loss on the Forty Acres on Friday night under the lights at the Disch. The top three hitters in the order for Texas got off and running to lead this offense. Duke Ellis, Austin Todd, and Zach Zubia combined for six of the Longhorns nine hits, three runs, and three runs batted in.

While the Texas bats were solid on the night, it was the performance of the 6-foot-2 and 220 junior right-handed pitcher Bryce Elder who really stood out against the Broncos. Elder pitched seven shutout innings with just three hits allowed and a whopping 11 strikeouts. That moved his record to a perfect 2-0 on the season so far.

This was by far the best pitching performance yet for the Longhorns in their first six games of the season. More than likely, Elder’s standout outing on the mound to start off the weekend series against the Broncos could be one of the more memorable of the entire 2020 season.

Texas takes their perfect 6-0 record into the second of three games against Boise State at home on Feb. 22. First pitch on Saturday afternoon will be at 2:00 p.m. CT. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Ty Madden will get the start against Mitch Lines of the Broncos this afternoon.