No. 1 Texas baseball proves point in weekend series sweep of Rice

A huge weekend for No. 1 ranked Texas baseball and head coach David Pierce saw them absolutely dominate the Rice Owls out of the Conference-USA to open up their regular season schedule. Texas was on fire on the diamond out of the gates this weekend to really prove to the country why they’re ranked No. 1.

Pierce and the Longhorns had the lengthy 6-foot-5 right-hander and sophomore starting pitcher Tanner Witt on the mound against the Owls to round out this three-game weekend series. And Witt was pretty solid throughout for the Longhorns in five innings on the mound.

Witt gave the Longhorns five innings with just one earned run, five strikeouts, five hits, and two walks. Yet, Witt was the lone Texas starter to even give up one run this weekend. That just goes to show how dominant the pitching staff was throughout this opening series of the season for Texas.

Moreover, the bats also came alive in a big way for the second straight game for the men in burnt orange. Texas got a massive game from the 6-foot-3 redshirt junior first baseman Ivan Melendez. With two home runs on the afternoon, Melendez was a huge contributing factor to this dominant win for Texas over the Owls.

Ivan Melendez and Trey Faltine combine for three home runs in a 14-2 win on Feb. 20

Melendez also gave Texas six runs batted in, two hits, two walks, and four runs. He had one of the best games with the bat of any Longhorns player in the opening series of the regular season.

Texas also got a solid performance for the second straight game out of redshirt sophomore middle infielder Trey Faltine. After coming up with his first home run of the season in Texas’ dominant 15-1 win over Rice on Feb. 19, Faltine homered for the second game in a row on this day.

Faltine hit a solo shot in the bottom of the fourth inning, which put the Longhorns up 3-1 at that point in the game.

That fourth inning home run would be the only hit for Faltine in this game. But he did also give Texas two runs batted in, one run, and one walk.

Texas would go on a massive run in the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings of this game. That’s when Melendez hit his two home runs of the afternoon. And the Longhorns would put up 11 total runs in that span of three innings on Rice.

Faltine, Melendez, and the Longhorns now sit with a record of 3-0 (0-0 Big 12) following their weekend series sweep of Rice to open up the regular season schedule. Next up for the Longhorns is a matchup against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as part of a two-game series on the road on Feb. 22.