The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Stanford
Bullpen shuts down Stanford in 5-4 win
02.18.2005 | Baseball
AUSTIN, Texas -- Scoring five runs in the first three innings and having Clayton Stewart (Angleton, Texas) and J. Brent Cox (Bay City, Texas) work five innings allowing only one-hit to close the game, No. 1 Texas (9-0) earned a 6-4 win over No. 5 Stanford (7-3) in front of 4,595 fans at Disch-Falk Field on Friday, Feb. 18.
Texas grabbed a 2-0 lead through two innings of play after a two-out, RBI-single in the bottom of the first from Carson Kainer (Tomball, Texas) with a runner on third plated the first run of the ballgame and Chance Wheeless (Round Rock, Texas), who singled to open the second, came around to score following a sacrifice bunt and a run-scoring double from Drew Stubbs (Atlanta, Texas). UT starter Buck Cody (Oklahoma City, Okla.), meanwhile, kept Stanford off the board by working a 1-2-3 first and starting a double play in the second to work out of a jam with runners on first and second with no outs. The Cardinal then came up with four runs in the top of the third courtesy of a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded from John Hester and a three-run home run off the bat of Jed Lowrie to stake Stanford to a one-run lead. Immediately countering, Texas came right back with three runs of its own in the bottom frame to reclaim the upper hand at 5-4 as a bunt single from Clay Van Hook (Brenham, Texas) with runners on first and second brought home one run in front of back-to-back, RBI-singles with two down from Robby Hudson (Redlands, Calif.) and Stubbs.
Following two scoreless frames turned in by Stewart and Stanford's Erik Davis, the Horns tacked on another run in the bottom of the sixth when Taylor Teagarden (Carrollton, Texas) led of the inning with a single, made his way to third via a sac hit and a wild pitch before crossing home plate after Van Hook slapped a run-scoring single through the right side, to make it a 6-4 contest. From there, Stewart and J. Brent Cox combined to hold the Cardinal scoreless for the remaining three innings, as Cox struck out five of the six batters he faced and picked up his second save of the year. Stewart, meanwhile, recorded his fourth win of the season after working a career-high three innings, allowing no runs, one hit and striking out two. On the other side of the ledger, Stanford starter Mark Romanczuk incurred the loss.
Pacing the Horns' offense on the day, which pounded out 10-plus hits for the fifth time this season with 13, was Stubbs, who extended his hitting streak to nine games with a 3-for-4 effort that included two RBI and one run scored and the duo of Teagarden and Van Hook, who each collected multi-hit efforts while combining to account for two runs scored and a pair of RBI. Meanwhile, the Cardinal were led by Lowrie, who tallied a three-run home run on the day and Michael Taylor, who went 2-for-4 and scored one run. Of additional note for the Horns, Kainer recorded his eighth two-out RBI of the season in the win.
The Longhorns and Cardinal continue their three-game series at Disch-Falk Field on Saturday, Feb. 19 at 2 p.m. Central.
