The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
West Virginia
No. 16 Baseball Preview: vs. West Virginia [March 13-15]
03.12.2015 | Baseball
Texas opens series with WVU Friday at 6 p.m.
Complete Game Notes (PDF) | Quotes
No. 16 Texas (11-6, 0-0 Big 12) vs. West Virginia (7-6, 0-0 Big 12) • Friday, March 13 - Sunday, March 15
Where: Austin, Texas • UFCU Disch-Falk Field (7,373)
Times: Friday - 6 p.m. | Saturday 5 p.m. | Sunday, 12:30 p.m.
TV: Longhorn Network (Friday/Saturday); Fox Sports 1 (Sunday)
Talent: LHN - Kevin Dunn (Play-by-Play), Keith Moreland (Analyst), Greg Swindell (Analyst)
FS1 - Dave Barnett (Play-by-Play), Pat Combs (Analyst)
Radio: AM 1300 The Zone, Texas Sports.com/Audio
Talent: Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Roger Wallace (PbP/Analyst), Bill Little (Analyst)
Live Stats: TexasSports.com
All-time Series: WVU leads, 4-2
Probable Starting Pitchers
FRIDAY
UT - Sr. RHP Parker French (2-1, 1.61)
WVU - Fr. RHP Conner Dotson (0-1, 1.86)
SATURDAY
UT - So. LHP Josh Sawyer (2-1, 2.95)
WVU - Jr. LHP Ross Vance (2-1, 2.16)
SUNDAY
UT - Jr. RHP Chad Hollingsworth (1-1, 4.50)
WVU - So. RHP Chad Donato (2-2, 1.44)
A LOOK AT THE MATCHUP
• Texas trails the all-time series with West Virginia 2-4, and is 1-2 vs. the Mountaineers in Austin.
• The squads had never met on the diamond before West Virginia joined the Big 12 in 2014, and WVU has taken two out of three in each of the series the past two seasons.
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS
• The Texas baseball team ranks in the Top 25 of each major college baseball poll (NCBWA - 16; USA Today Coaches Poll - 16; Collegiate Baseball - 17; D1Baseball.com - 18; Perfect Game - 19; Baseball America - 22).
• Ben Johnson leads the Big 12 in hits (33), batting average (.440) and total bases (50), and Collin Shaw leads the league in doubles with 12 (Chart on p. 3).
• Tres Barrera has reached base safely in all 17 games this season, and has an 18-game reached base streak dating back to 2014. Barrera has an OBP of .487 for the year.
• The Longhorns' five extra base hits Tuesday vs. UIW give them 55 on the year through 17 games (3.2 a game), after having just 22 in the first 17 (1.3 a game) last season (Chart on p. 3).
• Of UT's 99 runs, 51 have come with two outs this season (51.5%) after five of Texas' seven runs scored against UIW on Tuesday came with two down in the inning. The Horns are hitting .302 (58-for-192) with two outs this season.
• In contrast, Texas is holding opponents to a .192 batting avg. (32-for-167) with two down.
• Texas has now scored 73 of its 99 runs on the year in innings where the leadoff man reaches base safely. Longhorn leadoff hitters are reaching base 40.4% of the time (59 of 146 innings).
• The Horns scored in the first inning for the eighth time this season in Tuesday's win, and are 6-2 on the year when they do so.
• UT is outscoring its opponents 44-10 from the seventh inning and is 8-0 when leading after the first six frames.
• Texas has four players hitting over .300: Ben Johnson (.440), Tres Barrera (.350), Michael Cantu (.320) and Collin Shaw (.304).
• The four also have on-base plus slugging percentages (OPS) higher than .800: Johnson (1.143), Barrera (1.137), Shaw (.875) and Cantu (.840). Last season, the Longhorns finished with one player over .800 (Mark Payton, .828). As a team, UT currently holds an .811 OPS (finished 2014 at .709).
• Both Johnson (March 8) and Barrera (Feb. 17) have had five-hit games this season, marking the first time two Longhorns have recorded five-hit games in the same year since 2007 (Josh Prince and Bradley Suttle, chart on p. 5).
• Johnson has recorded multiple hits in 10 of the first 17 games this season, and has had five games with three or more hits thus far (more on Johnson on p. 3).
• Parker French earned the 19th win of his career last Saturday against Stanford (March 7), lowering his season ERA to 1.61 which ranks seventh in the Big 12. French is the Big 12 active career leader in wins and innings pitched (271.0).
• The Longhorn bullpen saw its streak of not allowing an earned run end at 37 2/3 innings with the four earned runs allowed in the top of the ninth of game two of the doubleheader vs. San Diego (March 1). However, the relievers still hold a 1.68 ERA (13 earned runs in 69 2/3 innings) on the year (more on p. 3).
• The pitching staff tossed its third consecutive shutout Feb. 29 vs. Minnesota, which was the first time Texas has done that since March 22-24, 2002, against UTPA. Prior to that, Texas hadn't recorded three straight since 1983 vs. Dallas Baptist.
• The 31 runs scored by the Longhorns in the Minnesota series was the highest total in a four-game set since they had 34 against Dallas Baptist in 1989.
• Longhorn base runners swiped six bases Feb. 22 against Minnesota, the most since they had six steals against California on March 30, 2012.
