No. 4 Texas baseball returned home to UFCU Disch-Falk Field after spending a weekend in College Station as the Longhorns dropped their first Southeastern Conference series of the year to the Texas A&M Aggies.
And with the opportunity to bounce back, the Longhorns rebounded on Tuesday night, taking down the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders in a high-scoring 14-7 affair.
However, after an ugly weekend series, the Longhorns’ nightmare-fueled performances nearly continued as the Longhorns had to work from behind.
“Super pleased with it,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “We put together good at-bats, but the guys at the bottom of the order … all did a really nice job of playing their role and setting the table for the top of the lineup.”
The Longhorns started out the ballgame with the Islanders jumping all over Texas’ starting pitcher in freshman Michael Winter, who headed out to the mound for the first start of his young career.
The start was not a pleasant one for Winter, as he was unable to record a single out and was pulled after just 20 pitches as he loaded up the bases with no outs in the inning. The Islanders capitalized on Winter’s performance with a five-spot in the first.
“I’m not worried about Michael,” Schlossnagle said. “I really wanted to see him start and we may have, coming off his illness, may have asked a little too much of him to go from Saturday.“
The Longhorns had a large 5-0 hole to dig out of, and the bats proved to be more than up for the challenge. On the night, Texas notched its 14 runs on 16 hits, with every single player in the starting lineup recording a hit.
Texas made its mark through the ballgame, scoring runs in all but two innings in which it batted, and in three of those innings, the Longhorns brought in multiple runs.
Schlossnagle’s praise for the bottom of the lineup was well warranted with the seven, eight and nine-hole hitters of junior infielder Ashton Larson, graduate infielder Josh Livingston and redshirt senior outfielder Dariyan Pendergrass, who combined for five hits and six of the 14 runs scored by the Longhorns.
For Pendergrass, Tuesday night was the first time the veteran outfielder started a ballgame in a Longhorn uniform, with him having made just five appearances this season, none of which were starts. In his first start, Pendergrass ended 1-2 at the plate with three RBIs.
“We’ve been talking a lot about self-awareness lately with our offense,” Schlossnagle said. “Kind of knowing who you are and starring in your role within the offense, and (Pendergrass is) a guy who’s played a lot of college baseball … and is finally healthy enough to where he can help us. ”
Also aiding the Longhorns in their comeback was junior catcher Carson Tinney, who ended the night 3-5 at the plate with five RBIs and a home run. The five home RBI’s were a career high for the junior.
The Longhorns will look to use this midweek as momentum to carry over into their next SEC series, as Texas gets to stay home a little bit longer, hosting the No. 11 Alabama Crimson Tide this weekend. The first ballgame of the three-game series is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m.
