The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
4-2
Stanford
2-3
No. 18/25 Baseball tops Stanford, 9-3, in series opener
02.21.2014 | Baseball
Payton goes 4-for-5 with three RBI; French strikes out eight in six innings.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Mark Payton went 4-for-5 with three RBI and Parker French recorded a career-high eight strikeouts to lead No. 18/25 Texas to a 9-3 win over Stanford in the team's series opener Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The Longhorns (4-2) are now riding a four-game winning streak, having outscored their opponents 30-5 in that stretch.
Payton increased his season batting average to .577 (15-for-26), while recording his sixth multi-hit game of the year and fourth four-hit game of his career. Jeremy Montalbano recorded his second consecutive multi-hit game with a pair of doubles and two RBI, and Zane Gurwitz went 2-for-4.
The Longhorns, who scored seven of their 10 runs with two outs against TAMU-CC on Tuesday, continued that trend by tallying six against Stanford.
French, meanwhile, allowed just four hits and one run in six innings while setting a new career mark for strikeouts, besting his previous high of seven set last year vs. West Virginia. Morgan Cooper took over for French in the seventh inning, pitching 1 1/3 innings while allowing two runs on four hits while striking out one.
Nathan Thornhill made his debut as closer, taking over for Cooper with one on and one out in the 8th and quickly getting out of the inning, then finishing things off in the ninth.
The big inning for Texas came in the second, when Payton tripled with two outs to score Ben Johnson and Brooks Marlow. C.J Hinojosa and Andy McGuire followed with run-scoring singles, and Montalbano capped the inning with a RBI double to give the Longhorns a 6-1 lead.
French settled in from there, retiring 10 in a row between the first and fourth innings, including striking out the side in the third.
The game remained 6-1 until Montalbano drove in McGuire with his second double of the game in the seventh. Stanford scored a pair of runs in the eighth to make it 7-3, but Texas answered with a pair of its own the next half-inning when Johnson hit a leadoff double to get the Longhorn offense started. RBI singles by Gurwitz and Payton increased Texas' lead to 9-3.
Earlier, the Cardinal got on the board in the first inning when French gave up two one-out singles to the left. With the bases loaded, a fielder's choice sent Wayne Taylor home to put Stanford up 1-0. The run ended Texas' 18 2/3 scoreless inning streak.
But Texas McGuire's sacrifice fly to center field scored Marlow and tied the game in the bottom of the first and an inning later, the Longhorns took the lead for good.
Texas will take on Stanford again on Saturday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. First pitch is set for 2 p.m.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: French, Parker (1-1)
L: Quantrill, C (0-2)
Batting:
2B: Blandino, A 1
RBI: Slater, A 2
SH: Jackson, D 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Taylor, W 1 ; Diekroeger,D 1 ; Blandino, A 1
HBP: Blandino, A 1
Batting:
2B: Montalbano, Jeremy 2 ; Johnson, Ben 1
3B: Payton, Mark 1
RBI: Marlow, Brooks 1 ; Payton, Mark 3 ; Hinojosa, C.J 1 ; McGuire, Andy 2 ; Montalbano, Jeremy 2
SH: Hinojosa, C.J 2
SF: McGuire, Andy 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Marlow, Brooks 2 ; Payton, Mark 1 ; Hinojosa, C.J 1 ; Clemens, Kacy 1 ; McGuire, Andy 1 ; Johnson, Ben 2 ; Gurwitz, Zane 1
