Texas baseball looks to continue pitching dominance with Tristan Stevens

On April 9, head coach David Pierce and No. 7 ranked Texas baseball will look to continue their quest to get the pitching staff back on track against a tough Big 12 opponent in the No. 23 ranked TCU Horned Frogs. In a low-scoring game on the night of April 8, Texas saw one pitcher come up huge in a 2-0 shutout win over the Horned Frogs in the opener in this three-game weekend series.

It was the ace and stud redshirt sophomore left-hander Pete Hansen that had a complete-game shutout in a two-run win over TCU to start off this weekend series on a high note for the pitching staff. Now, it will be up to another stud starting pitcher for the Longhorns, senior right-hander Tristan Stevens.

The last two starts for Stevens wound up being rather forgettable. It was two starts ago that saw Stevens give up a whopping seven earned runs without getting a single batter out in an eventual loss to the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a wild extra-innings game late last month.

Tristan Stevens can move the winning streak for Texas baseball to four games on April 9

Stevens was better for the Longhorns in his last start, which came against the Oklahoma Sooners last weekend. He gave up just two earned runs and six hits, while striking out six batters, in 6.1 innings on the mound against the Sooners. But he still came up with his second loss of the season so far, despite a quality start, against Oklahoma back on April 2.

As he looks to continue his quest to bounce back from that rocky start against the Red Raiders a couple of weeks ago, Stevens will get to face a solid starter for TCU in right-hander Marcelo Perez. On the season so far, Perez is sporting a record of 2-1 with a sparkling 2.16 earned run average.

Moreover, it will largely be up to Stevens to keep the momentum going on the mound for Pierce and the Longhorns as they look to take the series on the night of April 9.

Another solid pitching performance would go a long way to giving Texas some real confidence throughout the rest of the Big 12 slate. Texas could also win their third in a row if Stevens can bounce back on the mound in this one.

Texas will carry a record of 23-9 (4-3 Big 12) into this April 9 meeting with the Horned Frogs following their 2-0 win in this series opener. The first pitch time for this meeting between Texas and TCU on April 9 is set for 5 p.m. CT at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin.