The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Southern
Baseball tames Texas Southern Tigers, 7-3
05.06.2009 | Baseball
May 6, 2009
AUSTIN, Texas -- The No. 8 Texas Longhorns rode a solid start from Stayton Thomas and four-innings of shutout relief from Kendal Carrillo and Austin Dicharry to post 7-3 win over the Texas Southern Tigers at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Wednesday evening.
Making his first career start, Thomas allowed singles to two of the first three batters he faced, but settled down and allowed just one more hit through the first five innings to put zeroes on the board for the Tigers. The northpaw, who was scheduled to pitch just five innings, came out to start the sixth inning because of his low pitch-count and yielded four hits to start the inning before making way for Carrillo.
Thomas (3-0) went 5.0-plus innings, allowing three runs on seven hits and one walk while striking out two. Carrillo allowed just one hit over his 3.0 shutout innings and fanned two Tigers. Dicharry closed out the game by retiring all three batters he faced in the ninth, including one strikeout.
After hitting into double plays to end possible rallies in both the first and second innings, the Horns hung treys on the board in both the third and fourth frames.
With one out in the home half of the third, Tant Shepherd singled to left field and Connor Rowe singled through the left side of the infield to put a pair on. An error by Texas Southern's shortstop on a ground ball by Travis Tucker saturated the bases with Horns. Brandon Belt singled to centerfield to drive in Tucker with the seal-breaker. Michael Torres knocked in Rowe with a sacrifice fly and Tucker scored on a throwing error by the Tigers' pitcher on a pickoff attempt to stake Texas to a 3-0 advantage.
The Texas (34-11-1) lead ballooned to 6-0 in the fourth. Keyes started the inning with a wall-banger to centerfield for a double. Loy singled to rightfield and advanced to second on an ill-advised throw to the plate to put a pair in scoring position. Pinch-hitter Russell Moldenhauer was issued a walk to load the bases. Rowe pushed Keyes across with a sacrifice fly and a sacrifice squeeze bunt by Tucker scored Loy. Belt capped off the rally with a double to the wall in leftfield to plate Tim Maitland, the pinch-runner for Moldenhauer.
The Longhorns added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. Preston Clark was hit by a pitch to start the stanza and was replaced at first by Keyes who grounded into a fielder's choice. Keyes stole second base and an error on a grounder by Loy put runners at the corners. Keyes scored on a balk by TSU relief pitcher Shawn Peoples to inflate the Texas cushion to 7-0.
Texas Southern (20-26) did all of its damage in the top of the sixth. Jeff Nelms hit a leadoff single to rightfield and Michael Norris doubled down the leftfield line to put two runners in scoring position. Ray Hernandez singled to rightfield, driving in Nelms. With runners at the corners, Thomas committed a balk to plate Norris and move Hernandez to second. Deshaun Dilworth hit a weak grounder down the third-base line, but the dribbler forced Thomas to range to his right, bare-hand the ball and make a quick unsettling throw which was late to first base for the infield single. Dilworth was tossed out trying to steal second, but Hernandez was able to score on the play when Tucker's throw back to home was off line and UT's lead was trimmed to 7-3.
Belt led UT's hitters, going 2-for-4 with one double, two stolen bases and two RBI.
Hernandez paced the TSU batters, hitting 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI.
Danilo Carcamo (2-3) was saddled with the loss for TSU. He yielded five runs, three earned, on five hits and three walks while striking out one over 3.0 innings.
Texas returns to action on Friday when it travels to College Station for the first game of the State Farm Lone Star Showdown against Texas A&M. First pitch for the series opener is at 6:30 p.m. The Saturday and Sunday games of the series will be played at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
