No. 8 Baseball stifles Minnesota, 5-0, for doubleheader sweep

Saturday, February 21

Austin, Texas

6 p.m.

University of Texas

6-2

Minnesota

0-6

Minnesota

Texas

No. 8 Baseball stifles Minnesota, 5-0, for doubleheader sweep

02.21.2015 | Baseball

Box Score

Chad Hollingsworth struck out six and earned his first win of the season; the offense blasts six extra base hits, including a home run from Brooks Marlow

AUSTIN, Texas — For the second time Saturday the Texas pitching staff tossed a shutout and the the No. 8 Longhorns defeated the Minnesota Golden Gophers 5-0, in game two of a doubleheader at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Chad Hollingsworth picked up his first win of the season (1-0, 2.45), spinning 6 1/3 shutout frames while allowing just two hits and two walks, while striking out five. Hollingsworth attacked the plate all night, needing just 70 pitches to retire 19 Gopher hitters.

Ty Culbreth picked up where Holingsworth left off in the seventh inning, blanking the Gophers over the final 2 2/3 to earn his second save of the season. Culbreth allowed just two hits and one walk, and struck out three Golden Gopher hitters. For the year, the Texas bullpen holds a 1.07 ERA, surrendering just four earned runs in 33 2/3 innings of work.

The win moves Texas to 6-2 on the season, and gives them the series win over Minnesota, as they have won the first three games of the four-game set.

Brooks Marlow ignited the offense with a home run to break a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fourth inning, and added a single to his stat line in the eighth. Tres Barrera continued his hot hitting, going 3-for-4 with two runs scored, a triple and a double that just missed clearing the wall in left-center field.

Ben Johnson and Bret Boswell each had two hit games that included doubles and an RBI, and Boswell added another double and a run scored for good measure. For the night, the Longhorn hitters had six of their 12 hits go for extra bases.

Both starters dominated the first 3 1/2 innings with Texas putting only three runners on base and Minnesota just two. However, the Longhorns broke the stalemate in the bottom of the fourth thanks to a display of power from the heart of the lineup.

With one down in the Texas fourth, Marlow crushed a 1-1 delivery into the Texas bullpen in right for his first homer of the year and the first run of the night. Barrera followed with a triple to right-center and Boswell drove him in with his second double of the game down the right field line, making the score 2-0 in favor of the Horns.

Texas extended its lead to a comfortable 5-0 in the eighth inning, courtesy of five singles. Michael Cantu, Joe Baker and Johnson all had base knocks that drove in a run. Barrera and Marlow also singled in the frame, and the RBI hit from Baker gave him his first collegiate run batted in.

Cantu also showed an excellent arm from behind the plate, throwing out two Minnesota base runners attempting to steal second.

Tim Shannon (0-1) was the tough luck loser for Minnesota, allowing just two runs in five innings of work, and Minnesota fell to 0-6 on the year. Shannon struck out five Texas batters and allowed only five hits, but three consecutive extra-base hits he allowed in the fourth overshadowed an otherwise impressive effort.

The Horns and the Gophers close out the four-game series tomorrow at 1 p.m. with the Longhorns looking for the sweep. RHP Kacy Clemens will take the mound for Texas vs. RHP Neal Kunik of Minnesota.

Notes

- In the first three games of the series, Texas has blasted 17 extra base hits (13 doubles, three triples, one home run). Collin Shaw has five of those (4 doubles, one triple), and has a team-high eight extra base hits this season (seven doubles, one triple)

- The Longhorn pitching staff has not allowed an earned run in the first three games of the Minnesota series, and they have held Minnesota to an .029 batting average (1 for 35) with runners on base. With runners in scoring position, the staff has held the Gophers hitless (0 for 13).

- The Texas bullpen now holds a 1.07 ERA (four earned runs in 33 2/3 IP) for the season after shutting out Minnesota in 6 2/3 innings today. Ty Culbreth (6 IP), Connor Mayes ( 5 1/3 IP), Jake McKenzie (4 IP), Travis Duke (3 1/3 IP), Kyle Johnston (1 2/3 IP) and Andy McGuire (1 IP) all have yet to allow an earned run.

- Texas' starting pitchers are off to a 3-0 start this weekend (French, Sawyer and Hollingsworth all got victories) and have not allowed an earned run.

- Freshman Joe Baker recorded his first start, base hit and run scored in game one of the doubleheader today, and drove in his first run in game two.

- Freshman Patrick Mathis recorded his first career collegiate start in the second game of the doubleheader, making his debut as the designated hitter.

- Josh Sawyer earned his first win of the year by tossing a career-high five innings in game one today. In those five frames, Sawyer surrendered three hits and one walk while striking out four.

- Five Longhorns are batting above .300 currently: Ben Johnson (.432), Tres Barrera (.406), Michael Cantu (.400), Collin Shaw (.364) and Bret Boswell (.344).

- Ben Johnson has recorded a hit in each of the first eight games, giving him a nine-game hit streak dating back to last season.

- The Longhorns have not trailed in the last 39 innings. Their last deficit was in the sixth inning of Sunday's win over Rice.

Quotes

Head Coach Augie Garrido

On Josh Sawyer's outing: He was much better. Much more relaxed, had better movement on his fastball, working both sides of the plate, moving it up and down the way he can. Also had much better touch on his breaking ball and changeup, so he had three pitches he was using tonight to keep them off balance.

On Michael Cantu playing 1^st base: I think he did fine. You know, he is just kind of a baseball player. He doesn't get rattled by what you ask him to do and he just competes. As we've seen him so far early in the season he does his best work at the plate with runners in scoring position and the game on the line. We haven't spent five minutes with him on instruction. Just put him over there, ball players do that kind of thing. I mean there are a lot of things that can come up that later on he is going to have to be able to do, but he seemed comfortable enough there. That may be something we do.

Junior RHP Chad Hollingsworth

On the overall pitching effort: I think it went a lot different last week. Just being back at the Disch is just kind of more a pitcher-friendly field and the field at Rice plays kind of fast so they were getting a lot of infield hits and stuff and we didn't see that this weekend yet. Just filling up the strike zone like Skip [Johnson] always tells us and I mean they were just hitting to our guys letting our defense work.

On his health: I am pretty close. I feel fine and when I get out on the mound I feel real good. Just taking it day by day.

On challenges coming back from injury: I feel like the velocity wasn't there when I first came back but it's definitely getting back up there and that's really the only problem I've encountered. Throwing strikes I've been able to do it and I keep doing it.

On what pitches were working: I threw my breaking ball for strikes early but then towards the end that's when I started struggling, I couldn't throw my breaking ball for strikes. I was just pounding the mit and [Michael] Cantu was back there calling a good game and I was trusting him and he was calling good pitches so I just threw to him and it all worked out.

Sophomore LHP Josh Sawyer

On tonight versus the Rice game: I think it was all about location and throwing with conviction. Skip always preaches about throwing with conviction, every pitch and tonight I really worked on that, throwing with conviction and hitting my spots well.

On what pitches were working: It was fastball, curveball until the third time we got through the line-up, we started mixing in some changeups. Changeup looked good tonight and we'll just continue working on it. It's just a pitch me and Skip are working on. I didn't have it last year, have been trying to get the three-pitch mix as a big thing. So I am just going to continue to progress with that pitch.

On he took the Rice loss hard: Not hard about it, just forget about it. I mean they hit the ball well, credit to them, they hit it in the right spot every time. But I wasn't hard on myself at all, none of us were, I mean we knew what we had as a pitching staff this year and we knew we were going to bounce back.

On the pitching this season: We just want to continue to get better every start, that's our main goal is to go out there every start and just get a little better every time.

Senior 2B Brooks Marlow

On his homerun: I thought it had a chance, but then also the wind's blowing you know so I was still running hard and I guess it went over.

On the batting line-up: It's a lot of fun. When you're playing baseball like this, we don't have an easy out in the line-up and that's what makes baseball fun. And scoring runs every game like the first night and hitting the ball hard like these two games makes baseball fun and makes us loose.