“What are we going to learn from this?”

This was head coach Augie Garrido’s question for his Texas Longhorns team after Tuesday’s 5-3 loss to Sam Houston State. The Longhorns fell behind early and failed to record a hit through the first four innings in their final tune-up before the highly anticipated weekend series at Stanford.

While Garrido was unsure of whether his players were thinking ahead about the games against the Cardinals, he said that he is looking for consistency and focus from his team in every game, regardless of the opponent.

“We have to play well as a team and we have to play consistently, pitch to pitch, inning by inning to be consistent,” Garrido said. “We can’t just throw our gloves out on the field and flash our logos at them and have them fall apart.”

Sam Houston came out with notable intensity and took an early lead on an RBI triple by Ryan O’Hearn and a run-scoring groundout by Kevin Miller. In the fourth inning, Spence Rahm hit a home run over the left-field wall to extend Sam Houston’s lead to 3-0.

The Longhorns cut the lead to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI triple by Matt Moynihan and an RBI groundout by Taylor Stell, but the Bearkats answered in the top of the seventh with a pair of RBIs by Colt Atwood and Anthony Azar. Mark Payton, who went 3-4 to raise his season average to .536, would drive in a run on a triple to left centerfield in the eighth inning, but that would be all for the Texas offense.

Sophomore Cameron Cox ran into trouble in his first career start with Texas, allowing three runs on three hits in four innings. Conversely, Sam Houston starter Tyler Eppler was nearly untouchable through the first five innings and held Texas to just four hits and two runs in 5.2 innings.

Texas’ players were disappointed following the loss, as they believe that the Tuesday games are just as important as any other game during the season.

“These were the games that really hurt us last year in the long run,” Payton said. “You can’t take any game lightly no matter who you are playing. All these Tuesday games really do a mean a thing.”

The Longhorns will look to rebound this weekend against No. 14 Stanford. The Cardinals are 6-2 on the season and are a perfect 4-0 at home.

Published on February 27, 2013 as "Offense falters against SHSU".