The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
39-18
Texas A&M
33-25
Baseball cruises past Texas A&M, 8-1, in NCAA Houston Regional
05.30.2014 | Baseball
Marlow ignites the offense with a home run to lead off the bottom of the first; Thornhill matches career high with seven strikeouts.
HOUSTON -- Nathan Thornhill pitched seven strong innings, Texas put up seven runs in the first three innings and the No. 2 seed Longhorns (39-18) defeated No. 3 seed Texas A&M (33-25) 8-1 Friday afternoon at Reckling Park in the opening round of the Houston Regional.
With the win, Texas moves on to face the winner of No. 1 seed Rice vs. No. 4 George Mason Saturday at 7 p.m.
In front of a Reckling Park record 6,603 fans, the Texas offense scored early and often while Thornhill cruised, matching a career high with seven strikeouts. Brooks Marlow led off the game for Texas by teeing off on a full-count pitch and depositing it into the trees beyond right field. The four-through-seven hitters in the lineup, Tres Barrera, Madison Carter, C.J Hinojosa and Collin Shaw, led the offensive charge, with each recording two hits. Barrera doubled and scored twice while Hinojosa doubled, scored twice and drove in two runs. Carter scored a run and drove one in and Shaw drove in two runs.
The offense as a whole had 11 hits on the day, including one from Mark Payton, who extended his reached-base streak to 96 games. Texas got the lead-off man on in each of the first three innings, leading to the strong offensive performance.
Thornhill got better as the game went along, tossing seven innings and only allowing six hits and one run. After allowing the lone Aggies run in the second inning, Thornhill put up five shutout frames to bring his record to 7-2 on the year and lower his ERA to 1.49. Morgan Cooper came in to close the door for the Horns on the mound, tossing two scoreless innings and striking out two.
Texas improved to 12-2 in NCAA Tournament openers under head coach Augie Garrido, who ran his career record to 79-42 in regional play.
Meeting for the first time in the NCAA Tournament in their long history, Texas improved to 241-123-5 all-time against Texas A&M.
Texas put up a two-spot in the first inning to take early command. Marlow worked a full count to lead off the inning and then drilled a home run over the right field wall, his third of the season. Ben Johnson then reached on an infield single and moved to second on a throwing error, and Payton drove him in with a single to right field to make it 2-0 Longhorns.
A&M responded in the second, when Logan Nottebrok drew a leadoff walk and scored on a two-out RBI single by Jace Statum.
The Longhorns came back with a run in the bottom of the second. Hinojosa led off with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt and scored on two wild pitches from A&M pitcher Daniel Mengden (4-9).
Texas' big inning came in the third, when the Longhorns put up four runs on four hits to chase Mengden from the game. After Barrera doubled to left-center field to put runners on second and third, Carter hit a RBI infield single to make it 4-1. Hinojosa followed with another double to the gap in left center, scoring two runs.
That prompted a pitching change for the Aggies, who went to left-hander Matt Kent to face Shaw. Shaw ripped a single to left field and Hinojosa raced home, just beating the throw to make it 7-1 Texas.
Kent then settled down, tossing scoreless ball until the bottom of the eighth when Shaw once again singled into right, this time scoring Barrera.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Thornhill, Nathan (7-2)
L: MENGDEN (4-9)
Batting:
2B: STEIN 1
RBI: STATUM 1
Base Running:
RUNS: NOTTEBROK 1
SB: ALLEMAND 1
Batting:
2B: Barrera, Tres 1 ; Hinojosa, C.J 1
HR: Marlow, Brooks 1
RBI: Marlow, Brooks 1 ; Payton, Mark 1 ; Carter, Madison 1 ; Hinojosa, C.J 2 ; Shaw, Collin 2
SH: Shaw, Collin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Marlow, Brooks 1 ; Johnson, Ben 2 ; Barrera, Tres 2 ; Carter, Madison 1 ; Hinojosa, C.J 2
CS: Shaw, Collin 1
