The Longhorns had a habit of squandering on-base situations over spring break, but despite this the Longhorns still had enough to finish the week 5-2. In game three against the Red Raiders on St. Patrick’s Day, freshman Ben Johnson wasn’t going to let another potential scoring situation go to waste. With two outs and one on, Johnson smacked a ball out of left field to put the Longhorns temporarily up 2-0.

“I have talked a lot about the spirit of this team and the chemistry of this team, but you have seen it in the last 18 innings,” Texas head coach Augie Garrido said. “Are we at full throttle? No. Are we all connected from 1-9? No … but we are growing.”

To open up the weekend, the Longhorns (12-7, 1-2) hosted the University of California Santa Barbara for a three game series that featured high offensive performance from the Longhorns as they outscored UC Santa Barbara 19-9 in the three game sweep.

On Friday, game one, The Longhorns defeated the Gauchos 5-1 on the arm of sophomore Parker French on the mound. In game two, freshman C.J Hinojosa had his second walk-off hit of the year, a walk-off double to grab the series win for the Longhorns.

In game three, the Texas bats exploded for an 11-6 victory to finish the sweep. Both Johnson and freshman Jeremy Montalbano had home run shots in the victory.

The Longhorns defeated Oral Roberts 4-3 in a mid-week game at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. With the scored tied in the eighth, Weston Hall plated second baseman Brooks Marlow for the victory. Closer Corey Knebel grabbed the win despite allowing two runs in the top of the eighth.

Texas opened its Big 12 conference season at the end of spring break at home against Texas Tech. The Longhorns participated in a pitching battle with the Red Raiders and though the games were close, the Longhorns dropped the series 1-2 which gave the Red Raiders their first series win since 2002 over the Longhorns.

The Red Raiders took game one 1-0 — the Longhorns first shutout since March of 2012. Reliever Ty Marlow was credited with the loss after allowing a solo home run in the top of the seventh. Game two went to the Longhorns, who tied the series with a 2-1 win. Junior catcher Jacob Felts got the second walk-off of the week with a double in the ninth.

On Sunday afternoon, the Red Raiders didn’t waste any time and responded to Johnson’s home run with two runs in the third to tie the score. They tacked on two more runs, one in the sixth and one in the seventh, to put the Longhorns down 2-4 and hand them the loss.

The Longhorns travel to face Houston on Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. The Cougars are 16-4 on the season.

Published on March 18, 2013 as "Horns lose first Big 12 series".