The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas State
No. 5 Baseball topples Texas State, 3-1
03.15.2011 | Baseball
March 15, 2011
Box Score | | Box Score 
AUSTIN, Texas - Five Longhorns pitchers combined for a three-hitter and No. 5 Texas scored three two-out runs in a 3-1 win in front of 7,007 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Tuesday evening.
In his first career start, Kirby Bellow worked 3.1 shutout innings, allowing one hit and three walks while striking out three. Josh Urban yielded the Bobcats' lone run on one hit and two walks over 1.1 innings. Andrew McKirahan (2-0) earned the victory, with 2.1 innings of shutout work, allowing one hit and one walk while striking out two. Kendal Carrillo fanned two of the three batters he faced in a one-two-three eighth inning and Corey Knebel struck out the side in the ninth to pick up his fourth save of the season.
The Longhorns pounced on the Bobcats for a run in the first inning. Texas manufactured a run with Brandon Loy drawing a walk, moving to second on a sacrifice bunt by Mark Payton, stealing third and scoring on a wild pitch by Texas State's Lee Colon.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Longhorns mounted another two-out rally. Jonathan Walsh roped a double to rightfield, moved to third on an error by the Bobcats' shortstop on a grounder by Tant Shepherd and came home when Kevin Lusson bounced a single through the right side of the infield.
Texas State (12-4) scratched out its lone run in the fifth inning. Cody Gambill drew a walk to start the frame and Cory Falvey doubled to the wall in right centerfield to break the scoring seal. Falvey cost the Bobcats further runs when he tried to stretch his hit into a triple and was thrown out easily at third. Texas State would load the bases with two outs before McKirahan retired Kyle Kubitza on strikes to get out of the jam.
Texas (12-5) added an insurance run in the seventh. With two outs, Payton doubled to the gap in left centerfield and moved to third on a wild pitch. Cohl Walla and Erich Weiss walked to load the bases and the Longhorns scored when Kubitza muffed a Jacob Felts grounder to third baseman.
Colon (1-2) was saddled with the loss for the Bobcats, allowing two runs, one earned, on four hits and three walks while striking out five over 5.0 innings.
Loy and Payton led Texas' offense with two hits apiece.
Texas returns to action on Friday when the Longhorns open Big 12 Conference play with a three-game set against the Kansas State Wildcats at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
POST-GAME QUOTES
Texas Head Coach Augie Garrido
On tonight's pitching performance: Both teams pitched very well. I think our guys did the best job of the year picking each other up in situations. Each pitcher took on a responsibility. It was highly competitive, very aggressive and [we] showed a great deal of confidence against a very fine hitting team, a well-structured team and a well-coached team. [Texas State] has been coming from behind late in games. It's been winning a lot of games where they've done that, mainly with their hitting. You saw what their batting averages were. But that's what our pitching needs to do. It needs to take top-flight batting orders in division one and pitch that way. When they do and the other team makes mistakes, [such as] walks or there was a passed ball, a wild pitch to score a run, there was the error at third base that scored a run [tonight], so because of our pitching and defense, that was enough to give us the advantage to get the win tonight. Seldom is there going to be tremendous separation because that just isn't our style. That isn't what we're best at. We're best at pitching, defense and scratching out runs, that's our game.
On the offensive performance: Later in the year we'll hit better. We will. As it warms up, remember these kids are all from Texas for the most part and they're used to that summer heat and they do get better as it warms up and as the season goes on the hitting comes around. We've moved our batting average up quite a bit. The most important thing is not the batting average. It might seem like it to the fans because they hear so much about it. But the truth of the matter is we like to use a formula that's more like how many hits we have versus our opponents and how many more runs have we scored versus our opponent. At one point this year, earlier last week, we had six more hits than our opponent but we had 21 more runs than our opponent. I think that's making productive outs, advancing runners, timely hitting. You put all that together, this game is finally won or lost by the number of runs [scored], not the number of hits. They have a great hitting team and you can see what really above average pitching can do sometimes to good hitting teams. It will be another day for them, they're a good team.
Junior shortstop Brandon Loy
On the team's momentum: This is definitely a confidence booster for us. We had a pretty good weekend but had a letdown Saturday and then came out and played well Sunday. To follow that up with another good win going into Big 12, that's huge for us. We've got to have the most confidence we can get going into the series and it's going to be a good weekend with Kansas State. They're a good ball club. To have the momentum, feel good about where we are and go into that series, we're excited about it and we're happy with where we are right now.
Freshman pitcher Kirby Bellow
On his start tonight: Skip [Johnson]'s been talking to us about building confidence, especially me. [I] was nervous my first two outings and I have more confidence now because Skip and I have been working on it. It was just pitch after pitch and keep pounding the zone.
Freshman pitcher Corey Knebel
On feeling more comfortable: I'm a lot more comfortable. Today was the first day, throwing off adrenaline. I was more comfortable up there and more relaxed. [The curve ball] is working great. I love it.
Freshman outfielder Mark Payton
On his sacrifice bunt: A sacrifice bunt, a bunt for a hit is all about one pitch. You do a job. Your team high-fives you when you get back in the dugout and you feel good. It makes you feel confident.
Junior pitcher Andrew McKirahan
On his performance tonight: I felt good coming in there with two outs. My job is of course to throw strikes. I made it a little bit interesting getting the bases loaded but I felt confident that I would get them out.
