The No. 3 Texas Longhorns defeated the USC Upstate Spartans 11-9 in an unforeseeable nail-biter.
The Longhorns and Spartans were engaged in a tug-of-war throughout the game. Texas scored three runs in the first inning before the Longhorns’ bats cooled and the Spartans tied it up in the fifth.
Texas struck back in the bottom of the same inning, opening up an onslaught with a two-run bomb over the right-field wall from junior outfielder Aiden Robbins.
“(My approach was) just get a fastball and hit it,” Robbins said. “They threw me first pitch, and when you do that, I’m not going to miss.”
Robbins hit six home runs in his first 55 at-bats at Texas after hitting six home runs in 53 games last season at Seton Hall.
From there, the Spartans broke rank.
The Longhorns brought in five runs from three walks and five hits, batting around the order for the eighth time in 14 games. USC Upstate changed pitchers twice before recording its second out of the inning.
Not to be outdone, Texas suffered its own meltdown in the ninth. After entering with an 11-3 lead, the Longhorns gave up six runs and had to use four pitchers to get the final three outs.
Texas’ pitching was shaky all night. Senior starter Luke Harrison was effective but gave up his first home run of the season.
Typically lights-out junior closer Thomas Burns had an outing to forget, giving up two hits, a walk and three runs before being pulled for freshman Michael Winter. Winter quelled the Spartan rebellion, inducing a pop-fly to center field to keep the Longhorns undefeated and log his first save.
When the dust settled, eight arms had finished what Harrison started, six of whom combined to throw just one-and-two-thirds innings. Despite getting zero outs out of junior pitcher Wyatt Land, USC Upstate managed to use nearly half as many pitchers as Texas did.
The Longhorn bats managed to keep up, especially the ones belonging to Robbins, sophomore infielder Adrian Rodriguez and redshirt senior infielder Temo Becerra, who combined to go 7-14 with six RBIs. Still, the Longhorns were out-hit for the first time all year, 11-14.
“I think the teaching moment is: there’s no clock in baseball, you have to get all 27 outs,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “That’s the beauty and the demonic nature of baseball, it can happen to anybody at any time.
The Longhorns will look to tame baseball’s demonic nature and sweep their final nonconference series against the Spartans today at UFCU Disch-Falk Field at 12 p.m.
