A thunderous crowd roared when junior left fielder Travis Jones stepped into the batter’s box at UFCU Disch-Falk Field Tuesday.
But most of the noise boomed from the stadium speakers — Jones selected an ambient sound of applause to welcome him to the plate as his walk-up song.
Nonetheless, burnt orange fans had plenty to cheer for during the Longhorns’ 9-0 shutout victory against Richmond. Texas released its frustration on Spider pitchers after facing a three-game skid at Stanford during its first road trip of the season.
“One of the reasons we got out Sunday was to get the cleansing started and to get over a weekend that wasn’t favorable,” head coach David Pierce said. “Kids went to work on Sunday out at Stanford on our day off and we made some progress. We continued that in early work today. We’ve just got to continue to have the
right approach.”
Run after run rolled in for the Longhorns during the second inning. With the bases loaded, freshman shortstop David Hamilton grounded the ball to Richmond’s second baseman. But the Spiders committed a throwing error in the attempt to retire Hamilton, and two Longhorn baserunners cashed in to open up a 4-0 Texas lead.
Later in the inning, Hamilton and senior first baseman Kacy Clemens linked up to steal two bases right before freshman outfielder Austin Todd sent them both home with a double to left field. Redshirt junior second baseman Bret Boswell added another RBI single to tally up a five-run inning and a 7-0 advantage for the Longhorns.
“What I was most impressed with was the ability to tack on runs with two outs,” Pierce said. “We continued to just have quality at bats and not try to do too much. That was big for the team.”
The Longhorn lineup stung Richmond from top to bottom as nine different batters collected hits throughout the night. Four Longhorns recorded multiple hits in the game.
Junior pitcher Connor Mayes cruised on the mound while enjoying comfortable run support with seven Longhorn runs scored after just two innings. The right-hander threw five scoreless innings and only allowed one hit in his first winning effort of the season.
“He commanded his fastball much better so he could pitch off of it,” Pierce said. “He was sharper. It didn’t hurtwhaving a cushion and being able to go out and relax and pitch, but that’s how he needs to pitch all the time.”
Texas throwers continued to send Richmond batters back into the dugout empty-handed. Redshirt sophomore pitcher Parker Joe Robinson came out of the bullpen to toss two scoreless innings of his own. Freshman right-hander Kevin Roliard clinched the Longhorn win by finding the final out in the last inning.
Back in the comfort of their home field, the Longhorns look to bring their big bats into Wednesday’s game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at UFCU
Disch-Falk Field.
“We get to enjoy (the win) for a little bit tonight and we’ve got a new opponent tomorrow,” Pierce said. “(The momentum) needs to carry over and we need to have a good showing tomorrow night.”
