The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UIC
Baseball finishes series sweep with shutout of UIC
02.22.2009 | Baseball
Feb. 22, 2009
Box Score 
| Box Score | 
AUSTIN, Texas -- Brandon Workman and Austin Wood combined to yield three hits as the Texas Longhorns blanked the UIC Flames, 1-0, in non-conference baseball action at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Sunday afternoon.
Workman (1-0) earned the victory as he allowed just two hits while striking out seven in 7.0 innings of work. The sophomore right-hander retired the side in order in six of the seven innings. Wood picked up his first save of the season with two shutout innings. The senior lefty scattered one hit and one walk in relief.
Texas (4-0) completed a four-game series sweep of the Flames behind superb pitching. Longhorns' hurlers allowed just 12 hits and three runs over 34.0 innings of work, holding UIC to a .106 batting average. Texas starting pitchers Chance Ruffin, Taylor Jungmann, Cole Green and Workman combined to register a 3-0 record and a 1.00 ERA over 27.0 innings.
Adam Worthington (0-1) was saddled with the loss for UIC. He gave up one run on six hits and two walks while striking out two over 7.2 innings.
The Longhorns scored the games' lone run in the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out, freshman third baseman Brandon Loy singled to rightfield, moved to second on a balk and scored when junior first baseman Brandon Belt laced a double to the gap in right centerfield.
Workman carried a perfect game into the sixth inning before yielding a two-out hit to Steve McGuiggan. He started the eighth inning before allowing a single by Jason Ganek and Wood entered to extinguish the Flames.
Texas returns to action on Tuesday when the Longhorns host the UT Arlington Mavericks in a 3 p.m. contest at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
TEXAS QUOTES
ASSOCIATE HEAD COACH Tommy Harmon
On Brandon Workman's performance: Brandon has the ability to do that. He had it last year but he wasn't able to command his pitches. He was up in the zone and all over the place, he was getting flustered. He went out this summer and pitched in the Cape Cod League, and was one of the most dominant pitchers up there. He brought that back here and especially today. His location was unbelievable. He was probably throwing his fastball around 94 or 94 miles per hour, his curve ball was electric and his (changeup) was good. He kept the ball down and that was important. That's what made him so dominant.
On the strength of the pitching staff so far: It was a phenomenal pitching series. Coach [Skip] Johnson did a fabulous job of getting these guys ready. For them to go out there and perform the way they did was outstanding. Each and every one of them did exactly what we ask them to do.
On the importance of sweeping a four-game series to start the season: If you win the first four games of the season any time, you're going to have more confidence. The big thing about it was getting [Taylor] Jungmann out there to pitch, [Andrew] McKirahan out there to pitch, [Austin] Dicharry and the other young guys as well. We didn't get [Sam] Stafford in the game; we were trying to do that but he'll get out there Tuesday hopefully. That helps them get their feet wet so that the first time they go out there, they won't be quite as nervous.
PITCHER Brandon Workman
On his first start of the season: It was the first start of the year, so I was nervous to start off with. But I just went out there and made good pitches, the defense played great behind me today, and that makes a huge difference every time you're pitching. I was able to locate pretty well today, so it made for a pretty good outing for me.
FIRST BASEMAN Brandon Belt
On his game-winning RBI double in the sixth inning: It feels really good. I'm glad I could help my team out. I felt like I got some good swings earlier in the game, they just happened to go right to somebody. Luckily that one fell down when somebody was on base.
On the strong performance of Brandon Workman: It makes it a lot easier when he's throwing like that. I'll take a 1-0 victory, but we'd like to have a few more runs.
PITCHER Austin Wood
On capping off a four-game sweep to start the season: Brandon [Workman] did a heck of a job today with seven strong innings. He started the eighth and they got a little dribbler of a hit, so they called me in and I got the job done. That's what they want me to do so I did my best at it. I couldn't ask for more of my teammates. They did their jobs and were productive today. The pitcher did a good job on their side of keeping our hitters off balance, but we were fortunate enough to get some timely hitting.
On whether the team expected such a strong start: It's what we expected. We've pushed ourselves ever since August, especially since we came back in January and early February. We worked our tails off every day in practice and this is what we've been working for. I think a lot of good things will come from this team because of how hard we've worked, the accountability and the hours we've put in the weight room out here. But we've still got a lot of work to do.
SECOND BASEMAN Travis Tucker
On the importance of sweeping a four-game series to start the season: It feels good. When you play four games against a team like this that is really solid and is a really good team, to go out there and get four wins is always great.
On the performance of Brandon Workman: Workman did a great job. That's one of the best [games] I've ever seen him pitch. He rose to the occasion. It was one of the days where we didn't score a lot of runs for him, but we did score that one run that counted.
