Evan and JC sit down and chat about everything to do with Baseball’s first weekend and its future. They also discuss the Longhorns’ difficulties in this season’s schedule.

Hosted by Evan Vieth and Jacob Campos. Edited by Jacob Campos. The full transcript can be found below:

Jacob Campos: Hi. And welcome, welcome, welcome back to Texan Overtime presented by The Daily Texan Audio Department. I am Jacob Campos and sitting on my left-hand side is none other than the one and only Mr. Evan Vieth. 

In today’s episode, we’re gonna be talking about Texas baseball as the season is officially underway, and after a weekend in Arlington facing some of the best teams in the SEC. The Longhorns have unfortunately started the season 1-in-3, only winning against A&M Corpus Christi at home this past Tuesday night. The Longhorns were one of the best teams in the country last season, reaching the College World Series and ending second in the Big 12. But the Longhorns were outscored 21-9 over the weekend against Arkansas, Missouri and Vanderbilt. As the beat writer for the baseball team, Evan, what went wrong for the Longhorns to start the year? 

Evan: Well, it was a tough weekend of baseball to watch if you’re a Longhorn fan. And I think the main problem that we saw, obviously we talked about the offense a little bit right in the intro. 21-9 is outscored a lot but mainly the errors was a huge problem for this team. Eight errors and just three games over the weekend. Five of them coming against Vanderbilt pretty much lost the team the whole game from that.

One of the big problems that was coming into the season that a lot of writers, pundits were saying about this team is that you’re losing a lot of infield defense with this Trey Faltine, Skyler Messinger, Silas Ardoin all gone. And that was apparent in the game against Vanderbilt, especially Mitchell Daly, who is you know, getting into our shortstop position, second baseman last year, he struggled a lot at shortstop, making some throwing errors, still having a few problems at the shortstop position. And it didn’t get much better for Duplantier, O’Dowd, Carlson, that was just one of the main struggles.

Also something I need to say is that the bullpen was having trouble a lot in this game. In particular, I think it was the Arkansas game where the bullpen had a good, you know, set up from Lucas Gordon. Gordon went five innings strong, no runs even up and right away, the lead was blown and pretty impossible when your bullpen is not giving you any help and Arkansas has one of the best bullpen pitchers in the country in Tygart out there. It’s just hard to combat that.

JC: Yeah. And I think you know, so my question for you about this weekend, obviously there was the Vanderbilt blowout, we don’t even have to talk about that or dig too much into it. I want to know really what what went wrong on that Saturday game with Mizzou and then especially the Arkansas game too, because it really did seem to the first few innings that Texas would be able to just to maintain control and close it out.

Evan: Yeah, I mean, I noted a little bit on the Arkansas game that that is a Lucas Gordon masterclass on the pitching and Smith from Arkansas. One of the best pitchers I’ve seen from college. What we heard from when I interviewed Porter Brown and Coach Pierce is that they didn’t expect the kind of stuff he had coming out from their scouting report. He actually added in a new pitch this offseason that they didn’t know about, weird kind of situation they’re kind of not so you expect from a pitcher like that. That game was honestly just a very well-played game from Arkansas. They’re a talented team. I wasn’t too upset about that loss. 

Missouri was a team that I thought we would take a game from if we were going to take any from the season or sorry, excuse me from this weekend and it just came down to really poor offensive production. It’s kind of, I don’t want to just say the box score but when you’re only putting up five hits, it’s going to be hard to win a baseball game. And they were getting on base a lot, they were walking a lot which, the pitcher Lohse – I believe it was Lohse is how you pronounce his name – Ian Lohse from Missouri, he was walking a lot of batters. But in general, Eric Kennedy was not going to get it done. Dylan Campbell at least was getting on base but not getting it done and this is gonna be a problem throughout the year. The power is not there for this team, there’s not guys who are gonna get big RBI, the opportunities, big extra base hits. Jayden Duplantier’s first hit of the season was a huge ground rule double. That was it for the power of pretty much all weekend. And that’s just something JC I want to know your opinion about is with all these starters being lost. Where’s the power going to come from from this team?

JC: I mean, I will just say that man, I’m missing Melendez and Faltine. 

Evan: Oh, yeah. 

JC: It’s like looking at as a whole, especially with you as a baseball beat reporter, it’s really just giving me an insight into how much power we lost this year. It’s quite obvious. And I would honestly say that our strongest group right now is going to be our outfield. And that’s just because they’re the one that’s had the most retention and just, yeah, they’re just, I would say the the most veteran group that we have right now.

Evan: Definitely. I mean, Kennedy and Campbell were two guys who were, you know, on the cusp starters last year, and now full time starters this year. Porter Brown played a lot of TCU last year, very impactful transfer. He started the season pretty well, one of our better hitters. And like you said, we lost a lot of power last year, over 110 home runs of offense, we lost and that’s what’s gonna happen when you lose seven starters no matter what. But that’s an almost unprecedented amount of power. And it’s just hard to retain that much from any team, any kind of sport, where you’re losing that many starters. But I do want to know your opinions on what happened this offseason, to have a team that’s starting so poorly. And if you look at the roster, a very young freshman-built team, which is not something you expect for a program like the University of Texas baseball program.

JC: Yeah. And like obviously you know, I’m not as qualified to talk in baseball as you but from the outside looking in, it really just looks like that Pierce himself just failed this year in the transfer portal. It seems like especially over like, I don’t know, the last five years, we’ve just been able to get in a lot of transfers. And every year Texas has just had older guys. It’s always been old roster with one or two young guys. I feel like they’re just getting in the lineup. Consistent hitters. But that’s not the case anymore. There’s not really set veterans anymore, like there has been in the past few years. And long term that’s gonna hurt us. And really badly, obviously hurt us this weekend. But, you know, like, I knew we weren’t going to have a good weekend this weekend because SEC is the best conference for baseball. I knew it was not gonna end well. But, I mean, I didn’t expect to lose that badly the way we did. Yeah, especially on Sunday, that was not ideal. 

Evan: And they just got rocked. It felt like they were just kind of out of it for that Vanderbilt game. And it’s just unfortunate for the team, like you said, that we have this outfield of one, two, three that works for a lineup. But once you get to this four, five, six part of the order Daly’s there, Jack O’Dowd didn’t really play that much last year, but was kind of that fringe 11th, 12th man starter was also playing, and he’s now been a little bit better. We’ll also talk about the A&M Corpus Christi game where he played very well. But he’s gonna have to really step on the power department. And one of our freshmen is going to have to become our four-hitter and be our mini Ivan Melendez. That’s such a high task to ask to be anything near one of the best baseball players the University of Texas has ever seen. But there’s got to be someone that supplements large offensive plays, and it can’t just be where we’re getting to Omaha with only stealing bases and hitting singles. That’s just not going to happen this year, which Coach Pierce has said, you know, he plays for his team’s strengths, and this team has a lot of speed in the outfield lost in the infield, they’re going to try to steal some bases and they’ve been doing that this season. But it’s just not something that’s gonna be sustainable to win them championships, to win the Big 12, beat out teams like TCU, Oklahoma State, and Texas Tech. That’s just not gonna be something that can always win you games.

JC: Yeah, no, I completely agree. And that’s definitely something that will impact us. Going back to Jack O’Dowd, do you see him officially becoming the full-time starter at second base this season? 

Evan: Well, I’m glad you brought that up. Because that’s definitely gonna be the position battle that I think is going to be, it’s gonna be impactful. Maybe not the most impactful but O’Dowd was the one who was for sure seen as the next, you know, predecessor to Faltine who was playing shortstop, Daly moving over to shortstop. O’Dowd was gonna be the next middle infielder for this team. And he had a great game against Corpus Christi. I think he was three-for-four, added a triple for the team, led the team in RBI. He had a great game. I know it’s not very good opponents, but he looks pretty solid out there. And his defense looks to be getting better every single game. 

The big guy who I want to kind of point out is Jayden Duplantier, who is Andre’s younger brother, who came in not really a guy who you expect to be, you know, supplementing power. Like I said, he had that big, big double against Missouri. And he is a fun player to watch. And he brings a lot of excitement to the team. I think he’s someone that will try to get into that second baseman slot, probably won’t succeed. 

But the slots that I want to talk about honestly, is the corner infield spots and additionally with the DH because we have about three or four players who all want to have that spot in the order. Those positions at third base, Flores and Carlson are both guys who are battling for it. Jalen Flores, who was the freshman, had a big hit against A&M Corpus Christi and 10 recalls. A San Antonio man. A fan favorite. He’s been hyped up a lot and he’s been hitting pretty well. Not perfectly but, you know, he’s a freshman, you don’t sweat too much. And Tanner Carlson, the Long Beach State transfer whose brother is Dylan Carlson, very good player in the MLB, that’s going to be one that I really want to want to look at. Because that’s definitely give me the biggest experience versus freshman kind of youth power guy. And what do you think is gonna happen with that one?

JC: I mean, I feel like just given that the way the year plays out, I don’t see why we wouldn’t just fully embrace youth. I don’t see why, like, because I don’t and we’ll obviously talk more on the conference play and getting more into that in a second. But I’d rather us just, if we’re gonna have a down year for Texas Baseball, which probably still means getting into the tournament, but it might potentially be down year, I’d rather see Flores get that playtime. And I’d rather see Flores get those at bats. That’s just my personal thought about that. 

Evan: Yeah. And Peyton Powell is a returner from last year but he’s been battling with Thomas at first base, Jared Thomas. And Thomas has been struggling a little bit more. He’s also been a bit struggling defensively. But Peyton Powell hasn’t shown that much. And I think that’s also one where that one I think at the end of the day, one of Thomas or Flores or Powell, I think it’s just gonna be two of the freshmen taking that spot if Carlson takes over third, and the DH spots also up for debate. Ace Whitehead is the guy who’s coming back from last year, another guy that fans really like Max Belyeu is also pretty good. Rylan Galvan, who’s the backup catcher, all guys that could sneak in that DH first base spot. But right now it seems like Coach Pierce is preferring the two freshmen at the corner infield which is not something you expect from a school like University of Texas because that’s a position where you think that you can get easy transfer portal power from and maybe a shortcoming from Coach Pierce this offseason. Do you think that?

JC: Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely do. I’m actually looking at, that’s actually, I didn’t realize that Powell has yet to start a game this season.

Evan: Yeah, he’s been getting a lot of pinch-hitting opportunities and yeah, I think coach does like him, he wants him to play. He’s batting very well yeah, he’s hitting quite well, but it’s a lot of just, you know, situations that are impactful for him where they can get a good matchup for his batting handedness, which is something that any any batter should be succeeding and that should be the baseline for him in my opinion. 

Another thing I do want to talk about is that Corpus Christi game because no matter what, this team should be beating A&M Corpus Christi. No matter who’s on the roster, but the 12-2 win was very good. And one thing I really want to talk about was Lebarron Johnson, who was, he was efficient, he was pitching well, he gave up an early a third, third batter home run to Trey Jones on A&M Corpus Christi. But before that, he’d retired the first two batters in five pitches, and after that, no other runs were scored based on him. I think only two more hits were given up by him. He pitched out of his nine. His slider looks much improved from last year and has added a sinker or I believe is more of a splitter to his arsenal. And he talks about Coach Woody Williams, our new pitching coach really helped him with that. And I got some great quotes out of him saying, you know, they just have a good connection. Coach Pierce really talked about that connection. And that’s a guy who might be able to break into the weekend rotation if you know, Lucas Gordon’s always going to be there, but it’s Travis Sthele, who you really like, I want to hear what you would say about him, struggles or if there’s just a drive. Or if there’s an injury, that could be something that Lebarron Johnson is gonna have to face some really important Big 12 opponents.

And then also, I mean, O’Dowd, like I said, had a very good game, Mitch Daly had a very good game, Dylan Campbell had three hits. A very good all-around win. And most importantly, for me, the defense was solid. That outfield defense is not something I’m worried about at all. But zero errors from the team and a lot of very good plays. It wasn’t just clean baseball, it was well executed. Really tough plays to the left of Mitchell Daly that he’s making, which I didn’t think he was going to be making this year at this early as a shortstop and he’s obviously gotten over the woes from that Vanderbilt game. And I’m just happy to see that from the team.

JC: Yeah, I mean, if you can erase, what would you say, eight errors this weekend? 

Evan: Yeah. 

JC: Anytime you can go from eight to zero, it’s gonna be a step up. Yeah, there’s three games. Moving forward. I want to talk a little bit more about the schedule. It looks like for the most part, and I know we just talked about it, that Texas only plays one Power Five opponent before conference play starts. Yeah, obviously, we have the one game where LSU is coming into town and LSU is number one in the nation. Watch that. That’s a loss coming in next Tuesday. 

Evan: Yeah, I don’t see us winning that game.

JC: Other than that, how do you feel before conference play starts on the 24th of March? How are you feeling through the rest of our series? 

Evan: Well, I mean, we have the Indiana series this Friday, which I mean, that is a Power Five opponent. But Indiana is a team that in theory, we should be taking two of these three games on Friday. And this will be the first realistic test for this team. I think the SEC teams, it was going to be hard to beat a top 10 Arkansas team, top 10 Vanderbilt team. Indiana is one where I’m going to have my confidence swayed a lot based on that series. LSU, like you said, that’s going to be a tough game playing versus LSU, even if it’s at home is going to be hard and they have the best player in Dylan Crews in all of college baseball. But I think this is a good learning time to have three games against Indiana, a game against LSU. And then a series against Cal State Fullerton, who not this year isn’t as good, but it’s at home for them in California. So it’ll be the first real road trip for the Longhorns. And Cal State Fullerton is historically a great program for baseball, and they have great fan base. This will be huge for the freshmen to see, hey, this is what it’s going to be like playing against teams that don’t want you to win. You’re going to be playing at Texas Tech. Against teams like Oklahoma, their fans do not want you to win and they will make you known how hated you are. You need to be able to, if you can’t show up against Cal State Fullerton, how can we trust you against A&M who we have a game against this year, Texas Tech is our first Big 12 opponent. That’s just gonna be, so that’s really important. I think Coach Pierce knows that. 

JC: And I think A&M is also the same week as Texas Tech. I think so it’s like a back to back right?

Evan: Yes, they play A&M on Tuesday after having a full series in the weekend against Tech. And then the very next games are against Oklahoma State at Oklahoma State which will be…

JC: Going to College Station and Stillwater one week… 

Evan: Yeah, in one month’s time, we will have a very, very new picture of this Texas roster where they have – that’s gonna be seven games of hostile play and teams that you don’t want to play against because of how good they are. You know, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech are two of the three ranked teams in the Big 12. Playing at A&M who is a top 10 team this year — even though they did drop a pretty embarrassing game this week and play at Oklahoma State — that’s gonna be really tough. And I think if you’re going into the series and you take four of those games if you go positive from that, that is a huge win for this ballclub. Yeah, that would be a huge win for this ballclub and I think that’s really what they need. And it’s gonna come down to, obviously we talked about the errors in the bullpen pitching, that’s I think can be refined a little bit in this time. It’s teams like Mercer, Manhattan – these easier teams. But the hitting is going to need to generate power and the steady pitching is gonna have to be solid. It really does.

JC: So it really looks like once we do kind of get to the Oklahoma State series which is I believe it’s April 2, we finish up, it looks like big picture, that’s what we’re gonna, what this team is made of. Right? I mean, you think realistically like moving forward through the rest of the season? And like long term, I know that you already have your thoughts formed on the year. What is your expectation for Texas baseball this season?

Evan: Like I said, I don’t think this is an Omaha team this year. I think they are a team that could have the ability to host the Super Regional. Maybe not, though, that doesn’t seem like they’re gonna. They would have to probably be a top two, three team in the Big 12. I’m very pessimistic for this team. I think this is a fourth-place team in the Big 12. Like I said, just this TCU roster is unbelievable. They have some of the best players in the nation, but make some runs. They’re gonna be playing against LSU. You’re playing against Florida, all these really, really good teams that just thrown into the waters and said, good luck. So maybe in two years, this team will be very competitive. This year, next year, not sure.

JC: All right. Well, I think that’s all we got for today. Right? Yeah, definitely.

Evan: I mean, you know, we had a lot of fun talking about this baseball team. This is a team that I will obviously be closely following this whole year. You’ll hear me talk a lot about it, especially on my Twitter. But, you know…

JC:  You and the Twitter man. 

Evan: Dude I need to plug it. You know, this is a team that has a lot of positional battles, as we said, especially in the infield, we’re gonna see a lot of positional battles and a tough weekend for the Longhorns. But that’s something that they’ll get over and they have already started to look better. Upcoming weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday against Indiana at the UFCU Disch-Falk Field. That’s it for us for The Daily Texan. I’m Evan Veith. 

JC: I’m Jacob Campos. And have a good night.