Texas baseball on their way to a season-opening sweep of Rice

Through and through, No. 1 ranked Texas baseball and head coach David Pierce continued to flex their muscles in the opening weekend of the college baseball season for them against the Rice Owls at home at Disch-Falk Field. Before Texas takes to the diamond again at the Disch on the afternoon of Feb. 20, it’s worth taking a look back at how they dominated Rice for a second straight game on Feb. 19.

Pierce and the Longhorns saw redshirt senior right-hander Tristan Stevens take the mound at the Disch in their Feb. 19 win over Rice. And for the second straight game, the Longhorns got six innings of shutout pitching from their starter against Rice.

Stevens gave the Longhorns six shutout innings on the mound on Feb. 19. He also came up with three strikeouts while giving up two walks and four fits. And that gave plenty of momentum for the Longhorns heading into their Feb. 20 series finale against the Owls, where the 6-foot-5 sophomore right-hander Tanner Witt got the call on the mound.

Texas also got off to a decent start with the bats on Feb. 20 against the Owls. What powered the Texas bats in their Feb. 19 win over the Owls was the performance from redshirt sophomore middle infielder Trey Faltine. In the 15-1 win over the Owls on Feb. 19, Faltine came up with three hits in five at-bats with two runs and four runs batted in.

Tristan Stevens and Tanner Witt doing their best to help No. 1 Texas baseball sweep Rice this weekend

That effort from Faltine helped the Longhorns put up two early runs on the Owls on the afternoon of Feb. 20. As of the third inning, though, the Longhorns do hold a tight one-run lead over Rice by the score of 2-1.

All in all, if Texas can get off to a start this season that features a three-game weekend series sweep of Rice, that would go a long way to prove how good this team can really be. While there will be more difficult opponents than Rice on the horizon, Texas is definitely proving a point with their play so far this weekend.

Following their Feb. 19 14-run win over the Owls, the Longhorns are now sporting a record of 2-0 (0-0 Big 12). They can move that record to 3-0 if they can finish this one out against Rice on Feb. 20. Then, Texas is set to face Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on the road to start off a two-game series on Feb. 22.