No. 1 Texas baseball dominates Rice in season opener
An inspiring start for No. 1 ranked Texas baseball and head coach David Pierce saw this team come out with a strong performance in their regular season opener against the Rice Owls out of the Conference-USA at home at Disch-Falk Field on Feb. 18. Behind the efforts of redshirt sophomore left-hander Pete Hansen, Texas downed Rice by the final score of 7-0 to start off this highly anticipated college baseball season for the faithful in burnt orange.
Hansen got the mound in the Longhorns’ regular season opener this weekend. And he truly delivered with a solid performance. He tossed six shutout innings on the mound with eight strikeouts, only one walk allowed, and just three hits.
Texas also got solid performances out of the bullpen in this game from Travis Sthele and Jared Southard, who blanked the Owls in the final three innings. Sthele and Southard combined for three shutout innings with three strikeouts, just one walk allowed, and two hits.
The Texas bats were also going strong in this game. Texas had eight hits on the day, leading to seven runs. The bats really went off in the fourth and fifth innings, combining for five runs.
No. 1 ranked Texas baseball gets big outings from LHP Pete Hansen and C Silas Ardoin to shutout Rice
A driving force to the bats coming up big for the Longhorns was redshirt sophomore catcher Silas Ardoin. With three hits, two runs, and three runs batted in on the day, Ardoin had the best bounce off the bat in this win over the Owls.
Ardoin was the only Texas player with more than one hit in this game. Austin Todd and Eric Kennedy did contribute with one hit and one run each. But there were scattered offensive contributions for the Longhorns outside of Ardoin.
All in all, though, this was a complete team performance to get this win over a decent Rice team. This is the type of start to the season that the Longhorns were looking for. Texas has a very talented team coming out for the 2022 season, and this win over Rice really put that on display.
Next. 3 portal targets on Texas' radar now. dark
This win over Rice moves Texas to a record of 1-0 (0-0 Big 12) to start out the season. Next up for Ardoin and the Longhorns is the second meeting with Rice as part of this three-game weekend series at the Disch. First pitch between Texas and Rice in the second game of this weekend series is set for 2:30 p.m. CT on Feb. 9.