When Taylor Jungmann is at his best, he doesn’t need much offensive support — just one, two, maybe three runs.
The Longhorns’ bats provided much more than that Thursday night, cranking out 13 hits in a 9-0 Texas blowout over Kansas (19-19, 8-8), which gives Jungmann his ninth win of the season.
“The game was dominated by the pitching of Jungmann,” said head coach Augie Garrido. “He returned to the dominance we saw early in the season. He controlled the game. And we even had a couple of rallies on offense.”
It was indeed the junior pitcher’s finest outing of the season, maybe the best of his career. In 106 pitches, Jungmann struck out nine batters and only surrendered one hit, even more impressive giving the harsh conditions — temperatures in the mid-50s with winds blowing 20 mph.
“I mostly relied on my two-seam fastball to the inside corner a lot today,” he said. “I had a good feel for the ball. The breaking ball was good for me, too.”
With his strikeout of Jayhawk Ka’iana Eldredge in the seventh inning, Jungmann became just the eighth Texas pitcher ever to strike out 300 batters in his career.
“I didn’t realize I did it. I try not to worry about stats,” Jungmann said. “We got the win today, so I feel good. I’m sure looking back on it someday, it will be nice.”
Juniors Brandon Loy and Jordan Etier paced the offense, combining to go 7-for-10 with four RBI.
“Brandon Loy continues to be, offensively and defensively, one of the most brilliant players in this conference,” Garrido said. “He really seems to be comfortable, and he’s hitting hard line drives.”
The No.7 Longhorns (29-4, 12-4) will play game two of the series tonight and game three tomorrow, which will enable them to have Easter Sunday off. Cole Green (2-3, 3.27 ERA) takes the mound today. The senior pitched has strung together a number of quality starts, with four combined earned runs and 21 strikeouts in his last three games.Sam Stafford will start the series finale on Saturday. The junior left-hander is 5-0 and sports a 1.39 ERA inning ratio.
Should the Longhorns win the two games, it will give them their third conference series sweep.
