With freshman Dee Kennedy set up on third base and a scoreboard full of nothing but Cheerios, sophomore Jared Thomas freed Texas baseball from a scoring drought that lasted until the bottom of the fifth inning on Friday night. Thomas singled to left field, and Cal Poly third baseman Zach Daudet let it glide past to bring Kennedy home.
In Texas’ first meeting against Cal Poly, the Longhorns held the Mustangs scoreless, coming away with a 2-0 victory to kick off their weekend series.
While the Longhorns and the Mustangs have never met before, Texas owes a portion of its foundation to Cal Poly for producing former Texas head coach Augie Garrido. Garrido graduated with a master’s degree from Cal Poly and served as the head baseball coach for two years. He led Texas to two national championship titles, one in 2002 and another in 2005.
Both Texas and Cal Poly struggled to get to home base within the first four innings, as both pitchers left their opponent scoreless. Even making it past first base seemed like a challenge for Texas until the third inning, when both Kennedy and sophomore Jayden Duplantier walked to put Longhorns at first and second base for the first time all night.
It would be at the bottom of the fourth when Texas recorded its first hit, coming from sophomore catcher Rylan Galvan, who singled to left field and brought teammate sophomore shortstop Jalin Flores to second. But dropped balls denied the Longhorns from putting points on the scoreboard up until Kennedy made it around the bases and back to put Texas in the lead 1-0.
“I think we just need to work on grounding out (at-bats) a little bit more,” redshirt senior Peyton Powell said. “But other than that, I think we did a great job playing defense.”
Performances from both Texas pitcher and redshirt junior Lebarron Johnson Jr. and Cal Poly sophomore pitcher Jakob Wright were poised, as each posted a mean fastball of over 90 mph that left batters stunned. Wright accumulated seven strikeouts with an ERA of 1.50, while Johnson recorded eight strikeouts and a 1.38 ERA.
Johnson pitched for eight straight innings and threw 100 pitches, allowing only two hits and two walks the entire game. He skipped off the field with a smile as he was relieved by redshirt sophomore Gage Boehm before the ninth inning.
“Fastball command … that was the main key today,” Johnson said. “I’m very focused and just trying to compete on the mound.”
In the eighth inning, Thomas launched a double to center field and was followed up by Powell who had a double of his own to extend Texas’ lead to 2-0.
Texas will have two early afternoon games against Cal Poly again on Saturday and Sunday with hopes of coming away with a sweep.
