Vanderbilt strikes early, sends Texas baseball home with a 12–2 loss
February 20, 2023
Texas baseball lost its third straight game to open the season, as Vanderbilt asserted its dominance early in an explosive second inning and never looked back in its 12–2 victory to end the College Baseball Showdown for the Longhorns.
The Commodores came out of the gates hot and punched the Longhorns in the mouth to start Sunday’s outing. Vanderbilt had eight runs on four hits in the second inning alone, stealing bases at will and preying on the mistakes of the Texas defense. Redshirt sophomore Travis Sthele will enter his next outing with a 0.00 ERA, as none of the eight runs by Vanderbilt were earned.
“The inning shouldn’t have happened, we all understand that. The one thing I’ll say is it’s a tough thing to get seven outs, it’s not even like trying to get four outs,” head coach David Pierce said. “(Sthele) had tough luck today.”
Pierce reconfigured the infield in Sunday’s game, hoping to find some consistency out of the group after a rocky performance in Saturday’s loss to Missouri. Every single starter in the infield from Saturday’s game started the day on the bench, yet the same problems persisted. Pierce, however, looks at the situation with the future in mind.
“I just still feel like we’re not cut and dry in some positions. The young guys had a hard time of it today,” Pierce said. “It was very obvious, there was no doubt, but again, that tells us a lot. But it also should fire up the guys who had to sit today.”
Aside from the fielding problems, Texas’ bats were cold this weekend. The Longhorns came into Sunday’s game hitting a paltry .161 as a team, with redshirt junior utility player Peyton Powell and redshirt senior outfielder Eric Kennedy as the only Texas players with multiple hits in the first two games.
Part of the problem is the fact that Texas faced Arkansas’ ace in sophomore Hagen Smith and Vanderbilt’s returning freshman All-American in sophomore Devin Futrell, but the Longhorns will need the bats to wake up soon if they want to build some momentum heading forward.
On the bright side, the Longhorns are no strangers to a slow start. In 2021, Texas got swept in the College Baseball Showdown, losing to Mississippi State, Arkansas, and Ole Miss. The Longhorns went onto a 50-win season and were one game away from reaching the College Baseball World Series finals in 2021, so all is not lost for Texas.
Texas will get a break from the tough competition on Tuesday, as it takes on Texas A&M-Corpus Christi for its home opener at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
How did Pierce respond when asked if playing at home should be a good mental reset for the Longhorns after a tough weekend on the road?
“I think so,” Pierce said with a smile.
