Timely Hitting, Quality Pitching Carries Texas To Series Victory Over TCU

In what has been a season of ups and downs, this past weekend was no different for the Texas Longhorns, as they overcame a slow series start and periodically bad weather to claim a key series against the TCU Horned Frogs. Here is all the action that went down at UFCU-Disch Falk Field.

Game 1 (Friday): Horned Frogs 5 Longhorns 0

On Friday, the Horned Frogs got the best of the Longhorns 5-0, thanks to a big game by Luke Boyers and a shutout performance on the mound by starter Payton Tolle.

In the first, TCU got the scoring started on a Kurtis Byrne double that brought in Logan Maxwell. After four innings of no scoring, Boyers singled Byrne in the sixth and later homered in the eighth to make it 3-0 Horned Frogs. TCU would later add a pair of insurance runs in the ninth on a sac fly by Karson Bowen, with the second run scoring on a Longhorn throwing error. Texas would then fail to respond in the bottom of the ninth to give the Frogs a 5-0 victory.

Byrne, Boyers, Brunson, and Sam Myers had two hits apiece on the night for TCU while Bowen, Ryder Robinson, and Peyton Chatagnier each also had a hit. Peyton Powell was the sole Longhorn with two hits while Dee Kennedy, Jalin Flores, and Will Gasparino each chipped in a hit to give Texas five overall for the game.

Tolle got the start for the Frogs and got the win after striking out seven in seven scoreless innings while Hunter Hodges and Ben Abeldt threw an inning in relief to solidify the shutout for TCU. Max Grubbs got the start for Texas, going 6.1 innings and striking out five in a losing effort.

Game 2 (Saturday): Longhorns 7 Horned Frogs 0

Despite the first pitch time being moved up a couple hours due to anticipated weather, the rain still came in but did not damper the Longhorn bats in a resounding 7-0 victory on Saturday.

Texas scored all their runs early with a five run second and a two run third. In the second, Gasparino, Powell, and Casey Borba each brought in a run via singles while Flores brought in two on his base hit. In the third, Borba had a two run double to make it 7-0 Longhorns.

From there, the rain started to pick up and by the bottom of the fifth, the game ended up going into an hour-long delay. After the delay ended, starter Ace Whitehead and reliever Cade O’Hara finished what they started and kept the Horned Frog offense at bay in the latter half to secure a shutout win for the Longhorns.

Borba led the way for Texas with three hits, including a double and accruing three RBIs while four other Longhorns logged a hit. Boyers, Brunson, and Robinson were the only TCU batters with hits with Boyers and Brunson having two on the day.

Whitehead continued his excellent run on the mound since being moved into the rotation, throwing six shutout innings, and only giving up three hits to record the win while O’Hara, an infielder-turned pitcher, threw the other three innings to record his first save of the season. Louis Rodriguez got the start for TCU and only went 1.2 innings to take the loss.

Game 3 (Sunday): Longhorns 2 Horned Frogs 1

In what became a very competitive pitcher’s duel, the Longhorns claimed the series over the Horned Frogs on Sunday with a 2-1 victory.

All the scoring occurred in the second, with Myers scoring on a wild pitch for the Horned Frogs and Borba recording a two-run double for Texas. From there, the pitchers on both sides took over as the seventh was the only inning with any sort of serious scoring threat with TCU standing the bases loaded and the Longhorns having a run nullified in the bottom half after the ball touched Powell while running to second for the third out.

As a result of that play, Texas head coach David Pierce had three very lengthy conversations with the umpires in which he unsuccessfully asked for a review of the play, which ended leading to an ejection for Pierce. After that, Gage Boehm retired the side in both the eighth and ninth to give himself his fourth save on the year and the Longhorns the victory.

For Texas, Jared Thomas had two hits while Borba, Gasparino, Rylan Galvan, and Max Belyeu had a hit apiece. Maxwell, Myers, and Robinson had the three total hits on the day for the Horned Frogs.

Lebarron Johnson Jr got the start for Texas and went 6.1 innings and struck out seven to get his first win in nearly two months. Mason Bixby took the loss for TCU. The series win improves the Longhorns’ record to 24-17 overall and 11-7 in Big 12 play, while the series loss drops the Horned Frogs’ record to 23-15 and 8-13 respectively.

What’s Next?

Texas faces Sam Houston State for their final midweek matchup of the season Tuesday night at the Disch and then head off to Norman for weekend series against the Oklahoma Sooners in the final Big 12 iteration of the Red River Series. TCU returns to Ft Worth to host Dallas Baptist on Tuesday night and Kansas State for a conference series starting on Friday.

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