Pete Hansen dominant for Texas baseball in win over OK State

In their first game in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship this week, head coach David Pierce and the five-seed Texas baseball took on the four-seed Oklahoma State Cowboys at Globe Life Field in Arlington, TX. Texas and Oklahoma State had an early first pitch time on May 25 to open up the festivities this week in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for the Big 12 Tournament.

But there wasn’t much action to speak of early on as the Longhorns and Pokes were scoreless through the first five innings of the game. Texas finally broke the scoring drought by getting on the board in the top of the sixth inning thanks to a costly error from the Pokes which scored Trey Faltine.

That would be the lone run in the top of the sixth inning for the Longhorns, though. Yet, that’s all that the stud redshirt sophomore Pete Hansen would need in order to lock things down for Texas as he dominated the Pokes on the mound.

Hansen gave the Longhorns 7.2 shutout innings on the mound, where he allowed just three hits and two walks while striking out a dozen Oklahoma State hitters. This was definitely one of the most impressive performances of the season so far for the All-Big 12 First-Team pitcher Hansen.

Pete Hansen and Trey Faltine help Texas baseball cruise to a shutout win over Oklahoma State

There would be some run support delivered by the likes of Austin Todd, Faltine, and the Longhorns bats later in the game. Texas wound up getting four runs on the board to cruise to this comfortable win over Oklahoma State to open up the Big 12 Tournament.

Faltine sparked the Longhorns’ offense late in this one with a team-high three runs along with one run and one run batted in. The bottom half of the order was actually the spark for the bats late in this game. Faltine was a big part of that push from the bottom half of the order too.

Silas Ardoin and Austin Todd had the two home runs on the day, which were both solo shots in the last three innings of the game. Skyler Messinger was the other big part of the offense on the day, as he came up with two hits in four at-bats, with one run scored.

Moreover, Texas was ready to hand the game over to Tristan Stevens on the mound to close this one out against the Pokes by the end of the eighth inning. Stevens got his second save of the season for the Longhorns as he kept the Oklahoma State batters hitless in 1.1 innings on the mound. He also struck out two in the process.

This win for the Longhorns over the Pokes moves Hansen’s record on the season so far to 10-1. He proved that clutch gene is still there for him, and the Longhorns will now get to move on to the next phase of the Big 12 Tournament.

Texas will now be moving on to face the winner of Game 2 of the Big 12 Tournament, which pits the top-seeded TCU Horned Frogs and eight-seed Baylor Bears against each other early in the afternoon of May 25. That means the Longhorns will face the winner of Game 2 on May 26 in Arlington, with the first pitch time set for 4 p.m. CT.