Texas Baseball: No. 5 Longhorns dominating after shutout win over KU
The solid play for the Texas baseball program and head coach David Pierce of late continued through the first two games of a key weekend series against the Big 12 foe Kansas Jayhawks. On April 1 and 2, Texas took to the diamond on the road in Lawrence, KS, to down the Jayhawks in decisive fashion.
On April 1, the No. 5 ranked Longhorns downed Kansas by the final score of 5-2 to bounce back from a two-game skid earlier in the week. Texas had lost by close margins to the rival Texas A&M Aggies and Oklahoma Sooners to round out the month of March.
But winning ways resumed for the Longhorns on April 1 and 2 to continue finding success on the right side of the win column. Texas beat Kansas on April 2 by the final score of 7-0. The shutout was brought to you by redshirt junior right-hander Tristan Stevens. Moving his record to 4-1 on the season so far, Stevens gave the Longhorns seven shutout innings on the mound.
In his seven innings pitched, Stevens gave up seven hits, no walks (he did hit one batter, though), and had four strikeouts.
Other contributions for Texas baseball in the win over Kansas
Taking over for Stevens in the final two innings to round it all out for the Longhorns on the mound was redshirt sophomore right-hander Cole Quintanilla. In two innings pitched in this win over Kansas, Quintanilla only gave up one hit, no walks, and had two strikeouts.
Texas did well with the bats in this game. They registered 11 hits and had three additional walks. Nine runners left on base is never ideal, by winning by seven runs took care of that problem.
One of the best Longhorns players with his bat in this game was redshirt sophomore designated hitter/infielder Ivan Melendez. Although Melendez was left on base twice, he was a huge part in the Longhorns getting past the Jayhawks with his bat on April 2.
Melendez registered four hits in five at-bats, along with two runs and one run batted in. He didn’t strike out at all either. Melendez, and the batter behind him in the order Douglas Hodo III, were stranded on base a combination of five times in this win over the Jayhawks. That is something that needs to be cleaned up moving forward.
The solid pitching effort for the Longhorns, and an explosive night from the bats, is a combination that could win this team a lot of games moving forward. Following their two wins in a row to start off this weekend series against the Jayhawks, Texas now holds a record of 19-8 (6-2 Big 12).
Former Texas football transfers finding success elsewhere. dark. Next
Melendez and the Longhorns are set to take to the diamond next on the afternoon of April 3 to round out their three-game weekend series on the road against Kansas. First pitch between Texas and Kansas on April 3 will take place at 1 p.m. CT, with Redshirt sophomore right-hander Kolby Kubichek getting the call on the mound.