The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M
No. 5 Texas unable to complete State Farm Lone Star Showdown sweep
05.21.2011 | Baseball
May 21, 2011
AUSTIN, Texas - The No. 5 Texas Longhorns were unable to complete a three-game sweep of the No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies, losing a 3-0 decision in the State Farm Lone Star Showdown finale at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Saturday night.
Texas (40-13) and Texas A&M (38-18) finished the season as co-champions of the Big 12 with identical 19-8 marks, but the Longhorns will enter the Phillips 66 Big 12 Championship in Oklahoma City next Wednesday as the No. 1 seed.
With a trio of Texas pitchers going toe-to-toe with Texas A&M starter Ross Stripling for eight scoreless innings, the Aggies broke the scoring seal in the ninth inning against Longhorns' closer Corey Knebel. With one out, Kevin Gonzalez singled through the left side of the infield and Scott Arthur reached on a bunt single. The Aggies loaded the bases when Kenny Jackson golfed a ball down the leftfield line it dropped between diving leftfielder Jonathan Walsh and sliding shortstop Brandon Loy. With the outfield playing in, Andrew Collazo tripled over the head of centerfielder Paul Montalbano to clear the bases for the 3-0 lead.
Knebel (2-2) was saddled with the loss with three runs on four hits and two walks over 1.0 inning.
Longhorns starter Sam Stafford scattered three hits and three walks while striking out five over 5.0 scoreless innings. Nathan Thornhill worked 2.2 shutout innings, yielding two hits while striking out two.
Stripling (12-2) pitched a complete-game shutout, facing just three over the minimum with four hits and two double plays while striking out six.
Matt Juengel, Gonzalez and Jackson each registered two hits as the only players to log multiple hits.
