Texas baseball comes through with clutch win over Texas State

What could wind up being one of the most important bounce-back wins of the non-conference slate emerged for head coach David Pierce and No. 1 ranked Texas baseball on the night of March 8. Texas took on a rising opponent in the No. 17 ranked Texas State Bobcats in the front end of a home-and-home two-game midweek series on March 8 in San Marcos.

Pierce and the Longhorns saw their undefeated run come to an end in the final game of the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic on March 6 against the UCLA Bruins in a tough 5-1 loss.

Yet, this meeting with Texas State provided a real opportunity for the Longhorns to bounce back. Texas State came into this one after pulling off a really impressive three-game weekend series sweep of a top-15 ranked team in the Arizona Wildcats.

But this matchup against the Bobcats didn’t come easy for what was a very dominant Texas pitching staff at the outset of this one. Redshirt freshman Andre Duplantier II got the mound for Pierce and the Longhorns in this game after four solid appearances to start the season.

Duplantier only had one earned run in his previous four appearances of the season combined. He also didn’t have any appearances so far this season where he gave up more than one hit. That certainly changed in this outing, though.

In just over four innings on the mound in this game, Duplantier got shelled for seven earned runs, seven hits, one walk, and three strikeouts. This was the worst start of the season so far for Duplantier by a wide margin.

Yet, the bats came through in support of the Texas pitching staff after a rough start to the game for Duplantier.

Ivan Melendez and Texas baseball comes through with the bats to top No. 17 Texas State on March 8

What was really clutch in this game for Texas was a late-inning home run from Ivan Melendez. The redshirt junior first baseman had one of the more clutch performances of the season far for him with two hits, that aforementioned home run, one run, and four runs batted in.

Melendez wasn’t the only one coming through in the clutch with his bat, though.

Texas also got a big outing from Trey Faltine and Murphy Stehly. Those two combined for four hits, five runs, one walk, and three runs batted in. They also played a critical role in Texas coming out with this clutch win over the Bobcats.

Despite a tough night on the mound for the pitching staff and two errors, Texas still managed to ride a dozen hits to a close 9-8 win over Texas State in the end. Texas got the performances where they needed in a really trying game on the road.

This is one of those games that could really serve a lot of importance for the Longhorns down the road. A win like this one can build the character needed for an uber-talented team such as the Longhorns to thrive in the postseason.

Following this one-run win over the Bobcats on March 8, Texas moves their record on the season to 12-1 (0-0 Big 12). Prior to the start of an important weekend series against the South Carolina Gamecocks in Columbia starting on March 11, there is one more game remaining this week for the Longhorns.

Texas is set to face Texas State in the backend of this midweek home-and-home series at home at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on March 9, with first pitch set for 6:30 p.m. CT.