The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
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Kansas
No. 10/14 Baseball evens series with Kansas with 2-1 win
03.15.2014 | Baseball
Peters goes 7-1/3 innings in the win.
AUSTIN, Texas -- Dillon Peters pitched 7 1/3 innings of one-run baseball, Texas scored the only two runs it would need in the first inning, and the No. 10/14 Longhorns evened their series with Kansas with a 2-1 win Saturday afternoon.
A night after falling to the Jayhawks, 3-2, Texas and Kansas had a game decided by just one run for the fifth consecutive time in the series. Like Friday, Saturday's game was a pitcher's duel with Peters getting the better of Kansas' Robert Kahana, who scattered five hits in eight innings of work.
Neither team put up a run after the third inning, with both pitchers settling into a groove and working quick innings in a game that lasted just two hours and 15 minutes.
John Curtiss closed the door for Texas (15-5, 1-1 Big 12), relieving Peters with one out in the eighth and working 1 2/3 innings for his fourth save in as many tries.
Mark Payton led the Longhorns offensively with a 2-for-4 day, extending his national-best reached-base streak to 59 games. The senior owns the mark alone after Nebraska's Michael Pritchard, who had shared the streak, failed to reach base Friday night.
Four of Texas' five hits came from the outfield, with left fielder Ben Johnson going 1-for-3 with a run and right fielder Collin Shaw going 1-for-3 with a RBI.
Texas, which is 6-0 when scoring in the first inning, jumped on top right away. Singles by Johnson and Payton put runners on the corners with two outs, and Tres Barrera hit a chopper to shortstop that resulted in a throwing error, allowing Johnson to score. Shaw followed with a single to right field to bring in Payton and make it 2-0.
Kansas (13-5, 1-1 Big 12) scored its only run in the third, cutting the deficit to 2-1 on a two-out, run-scoring single from second baseman Colby Wright.
The Jayhawks' only other real threat came in the fifth, when a pair of singles gave them two on with two outs. Peters, however, got out of the jam with a strikeout, and Kansas didn't put a runner in scoring position the rest of the game.
Kahana (1-3), meanwhile, settled in after the first, retiring the side in order in four of the next five innings. It wasn't until the sixth when Payton singled and stole second that Texas put another runner in scoring position.
Texas also received some outstanding defense from the outfield. In the second inning, Johnson had the first of two tremendous plays, sprinting to his left on a ball hit to the gap in left-center field and laying out for a diving catch. On the next batter, Shaw made another great play, racing towards the foul line and making a catch on the edge of his glove before slamming into the outfield fence.
Peters, who improved to 2-1 with a 1.83 ERA, has gone at least seven innings in four of his five starts this year. The junior leads the team with 34 1/3 innings pitched, an average of 6.87 innings per start.
Texas and Kansas are set to conclude the series Sunday at 1 p.m. A pair of seniors will take the mound, with Texas RHP Nathan Thornhill (3-0, 1.21) facing Kansas RHP Frank Duncan (2-1, 2.01).
