The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Sam Houston State
Baseball blanked by Sam Houston State, 5-0
04.14.2015 | Baseball
The Longhorns resume Big 12 play Friday at Kansas
AUSTIN, Texas – The Baseball team was shutout by the Sam Houston State Bearkats, 5-0, Tuesday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field thanks to stellar pitching and four runs with two outs in the inning by the Bearkats.
Sam Houston State (20-19) starter Alex Bisacca (2.45 ERA) allowed just one hit over four innings of work while retiring three Longhorns on strikes. He was relieved by Jordan Church (2-1, 1.27 ERA), who earned the win by tossing five innings of shutout ball, surrendering just two hits and one walk, and recording four strikeouts.
Josh Sawyer (2-2) took the loss for the Longhorns (19-18) by allowing two runs over four innings. Sawyer walked four, allowed four hits and struck out three in his outing. Six relievers followed, including Travis Duke (2.70 ERA) who was tagged for the other three Bearkat runs thanks to four two-out hits in the seventh inning.
First baseman Spence Rahm smashed three hits for Sam Houston State, including an RBI double, and also scored twice in the game.
Collin Shaw had a single and a walk for the Longhorns, Brooks Marlow doubled and C.J Hinojosa also added a base knock.
The two starters traded zeros for the first three frames, with Sawyer allowing a hit and three walks and Bisacca retiring all nine he faced.
The Bearkats then broke through for two runs in the top of the fourth thanks to three singles, a walk and wild pitch. The first run came across when Wyatt Powell drove a ball up the middle to score Rahm from second, and Sam Houston State extended the lead to 2-0 on a wild pitch that allowed Jake MacWilliam to come home.
In the bottom half of the inning, Marlow roped a one-out double to left-center, but two groundouts to first base left him stranded.
In the seventh, Sam Houston State struck for three more runs, all with two outs, to extend its lead to 5-0. The Bearkats first two hitters of the inning grounded out, but they then used four consecutive hits, including two doubles, to generate the three-run rally off of Duke.
From there, Church finished out his strong performance on the mound to seal the 5-0 victory for the Bearkats.
Texas will look to bounce back this weekend (April 17-19) in Lawrence, Kansas, when it takes on the Kansas Jayhawks beginning Friday night at 6 p.m.
QUOTES
Head Coach Augie Garrido
On how to get past the loss: They gave to gain confidence. They have to have some success so they can regain their confidence in who they are and what they are doing. They are still that same person, they switch between passive and aggressive, you know that's when fear sets in, fight or flight, some of both. We are trying to get them to be the ball players that they are. We know that they are good enough as baseball players - just to bring that baseball player that they are to the ballpark. But you have the tendency to try and do too much. It is very hard to control.
On concern about making a regional: My concerns are about the attitude of the team and so far even though they haven't performed during these difficult times to their ability level, or they have tried too hard which makes it look like they aren't trying to perform. It's still about getting to that teamwork that it takes to be successful. So I am more concerned with team development and attitude development and success that they can have so they feel good about themselves. Let the Ws take care of themselves and let the committee decide whether we belong in it. We can't control all of those things.
On playing C.J Hinojosa in left field: We have had some good things happen as a result of resting players, which is what this was. When we did it for [Bret] Boswell, he came back strong, when we did it for C.J he came back better. So when they go through these difficulties they keep repeating themselves, sometimes a day off or two lets them know that they don't have to carry the weight of the world, of the whole team, on their shoulders. So that was what that was about today.
Junior OF Ben Johnson
On gaining confidence: I think just going back to what we've been doing at the beginning of the year, just getting guys on base early in the innings, early in the games. You know we aren't really doing that right now. I think it causes us to put pressure on ourselves; just got to stick with it and we will break out of this soon.
On having a similar situation last year: I think just stick with it. I mean we were kind of in a similar situation last year like you said but we kind of stuck with the process and snapped out of it. From the beginning of year to now, it's night and day, so it's in there, it just has to come out somehow.
