The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
VCU
Baseball wins season opener over Virginia Commonwealth, 6-2
02.22.2008 | Baseball
The Longhorns drew first blood with a run in the bottom of the first inning. Travis Tucker led off with an infield single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Michael Torres. A flyout pushed Tucker to third and he scored on a single to centerfield by Preston Clark.
Texas tacked on two more runs in the third inning. Jordan Danks walked and stole second base to leadoff the inning. Kyle Russell hit a fly ball to centerfield that was misplayed by the Rams. The error allowed Danks to score and put Russell on second. He stole third base and scored on a sacrifice fly to centerfield by Clark, staking the Horns to a 3-0 lead.
Texas inflated the cushion to 4-0 with a run in the fourth. Kevin Keyes hit a leadoff single and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by David Hernandez. Tucker put runners on the corners with a bunt single and a sacrifice bunt by Torres pushed Keyes across.
VCU trimmed the lead to 4-2 with runs in the fifth and sixth. Nathan Furry hit a two-out single to start a rally in the fifth. Justin Wright followed with a single to put runners at first and second and Joe Van Meter plated Furry with a single up the middle. In the sixth, Richard Gonzalez hit a leadoff single and with two outs, Carlos Rodriguez singled and R.J. Schenk hit an RBI single to leftfield.
The Longhorns capped the scoring with two runs in the seventh. With one out, Danks and Russell drew walks and moved to third and second, respectively on a wild pitch. Clark delivered a two-run single to leftfield.
An annouced crowd of 5,990 came out to see the first game played at newly renovated UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
In his first collegiate game, Keyes went 3-for-4 with one double and one run scored. Clark went 2-for-3 with four RBI. Tucker added a pair of hits and a stolen base.
Furry and Van Meter each logged two hits for the Rams.
Wood earned the victory, yielding just two runs on six hits while striking out six over six innings. Freshman Brandon Workman pitched two hitless shutout innings of relief, fanning three and walking one. Kyle Walker closed out the game with one shutout inning with two strikeouts and two hits.
Will Hirsch was saddled with the loss for VCU. He allowed four runs, two earned, on five hits and two walks over 3.2 innings.
The Longhorns and Rams play game two of the series Saturday at noon.
POSTGAME QUOTES
HEAD COACH Augie Garrido
On LHP Austin Wood: I think early in the game Austin Wood went along and controlled the game from the defensive side, but what really showed to be the difference in the game was when they started to hit balls through the middle of the infield and over the infield off the handle and luck plays its own role in this sport and it didn't unravel him at all, he just kept coming right at everybody; made them hit the ball and used the defense.
LF Kevin Keyes
On his first game as a Longhorn: It was great win. My first at bat was a little nerve wracking, but I had a lot of people calm me down before the game. We have been waiting for this first day and waiting to show the world what we have.
CF Jordan Danks
On opening day: I think we were all really pumped today. Coming to the ball park we all had our music playing and ready to kick things off because by this time last year we had already had a couple of games under our belt.
LHP Austin Wood:
On how it felt out on the mound today: It was opening day, it was fun and it doesn't get any better than this, gorgeous weather, great fans and we came out with a win. This is the first time in two years that I've started the season out with a win and it's a good feeling. We played well and we're ready to come out tomorrow and play.
On playing in the new stadium:
Early on it felt like the first game, but once the game got going we all got settled in and use to the new stadium.
C Preston Clark
On opening day and his four RBI: In all honesty I wasn't trying to do anything more than what I'm capable of doing. The past two or three years we've lost our opening series so I didn't want to go that route again. I just had to relax and guide the other guys through the start of the year.
