Baseball cruises past Prairie View A&M, 12-4

Tuesday, April 28

Austin, Texas

6 p.m.

University of Texas

23-22

Prairie View A&M

14-32

Prairie View A&M

Texas

04.28.2015 | Baseball

Box Score

Eight Longhorns recorded a hit and seven players had RBIs in the win; seven pitchers combined for a one-hitter

AUSTIN, Texas -- A 15-hit performance by the Longhorn offense and a one-hitter from the pitching staff propelled the Baseball team to a 12-4 victory over Prairie View A&M Tuesday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Texas (23-22) was impressive at the plate all game long, scoring in seven of its eight at bats in the 12-run performance. The Longhorns recorded a season-high eight steals in the game, the most since March 8, 2011, when they also had eight against UTSA.

Eight of nine starters recorded a hit in the game and five had two or more, and seven players drove in at least one run.

Collin Shaw had a three-hit performance, including his fourth home run of the season, a solo-blast into the right-field bullpen in the seventh inning. He also walked, stole two bases and added an additional RBI and run scored in the contest. Brooks Marlow drove in three runs in a 2-for-5 outing that featured his fifth homer of the year, a two-run shot in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Joe Baker was a perfect 3-for-3 on the evening with a double, a hit by pitch, a steal, two RBIs and a run scored, and Ben Johnson set another career high with four stolen bags to go along with two hits, two RBIs and three runs scored.

Jake McKenzie (2-0, 0.61 ERA) earned the win on mound by tossing two impressive innings of relief, yielding just one walk. McKenzie entered the game in a tight spot in the fourth inning with the bases loaded, no outs and the Longhorns clinging to a 4-3 lead. However, he induced a 4-6-3 ground ball double play and a fly out to center to limit the damage. The offense then scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth, and McKenzie threw a scoreless fifth to pick up credit for the victory.

Six other pitchers saw time for Texas including Travis Duke, Kyle Johnston, Kirby Bellow and Ty Marlow, who each threw a scoreless inning to follow McKenzie. Prairie View A&M was held to just one hit in the game, a single up the middle in the seventh.

Edward Robledo (0-4) took the loss for PVAMU, as the Panthers fell to 14-32 on the season.

The Longhorns broke out to a 3-0 lead in their half of the first inning which featured RBI singles from Zane Gurwitz and Baker, and the lead stretched to 4-0 on a Johnson sacrifice fly in the second.

After the lone scoreless inning of the night, the Panthers rallied to tie the game at 4-4 in the top of the fourth without the benefit of a hit. The Panthers used four walks, a hit by pitch and a Texas error to tie the score, and if not for McKenzie limiting the damage after entering with the bases juiced and no outs, PVAMU could have taken the lead.

The Horns' bats bounced back with two runs in the bottom half of the fourth, as Johnson and Michael Cantu both delivered RBI singles, with Cantu's coming with two outs to score Johnson and make the score 6-4 Texas.

After the fourth inning, UT pitchers settled in, surrendering just three base runners the rest of the game, including the lone base hit, a single off Johnston with two outs in the seventh inning.

The offense continued to score throughout the remainder of the game, adding at least a run-per-frame over the last four innings to push the score to 10-4. The final three Texas runs all came on the long ball, as Shaw blasted a solo shot in the bottom of the seventh inning and Marlow delivered his two-run shot in the eighth.

Texas returns to conference action this weekend (May 1-3) from UFCU Disch-Falk Field when they take on the Texas Tech Red Raiders in a three-game set, beginning Friday at 6 p.m.

QUOTES

Head Coach Augie Garrido

Opening statement: We handled the plays defensively in a timely fashion and got our outs. We got good, steady pitching from the fifth on. It's important to get [Kirby] Bellow out there. Our freshman shortstop [Joe Baker] did an outstanding job both offensively and defensively. I thought the team functioned well.

On playing aggressive on the base path: We have to. We can't just sit still because then all you do is think about a hit and a hit never produces a run because you're never in scoring position. You have to do something to get movement. There's only four types of games you can play: Bat control – which is hit and run and that kind of thing - the bunting game to advance runners, the hitting, and base running. Those are the four weapons you have on offense and you have to develop the individual skills under each one of those categories and you have to do that in the framework of three outs. It's really kind of simple, you just have to do it.

On if they can draw confidence from this game: It certainly can give them confidence. They enjoyed a lot of success and it took a lot of teamwork. We plugged that teamwork in there on purpose to get them thinking that way. I think they felt more comfortable just having smaller responsibilities and just simpler tasks. We just have to get back to the fundamentals and the basics.

On the biggest challenge of the season: It's always about attitude. We don't have a bad attitude. We don't have dissension. We don't have conflicts between the coaches, which a lot of times in losing seasons you do. What we have is a team that is trying but got caught in in the trap of trying to improve their hitting. As we tried to improve our hitting, we tried to put a total focus on that element of the game which is easy to do because the position player's ego is tied up in batting average. It's the toughest skill of all of the offensive skills to win with. It's an easy trap to get into.

Freshman SS Joe Baker

On the attitude of the team: We've had a rough year and we just want to get back to the basics and playing Longhorn baseball and fundamental baseball. Just back to the basics, that's all it was.

On takeaways from the win: Every win is important. You never was to underestimate a team. We just wanted to go out there and take care of things like we should have all year. We've had a down year, but it was good to get out there and get a win that will hopefully propel us to our next series against Texas Tech. Hopefully we can jump on a roll, get to the Big 12 tournament, win there, and get into regionals.

Junior OF Ben Johnson

On importance of leading off: I just try to set the tone early. Obviously we want to score a lot of runs and we did that tonight. That's the goal of every game to score as many runs as you can. It's one of those things that no matter what the situation was, we were going to keep putting it on them. We just wanted to keep aggressive and hopefully that transitions into this weekend.

On the need to play aggressive: Yeah I think so. You saw it tonight, that's really what put a fire under us to get things going. We just need to be aggressive on the base path, take pitches where you can put runners in scoring position, and find a way to get guys in.

On the mindset of the team after TCU: It's tough going through what we are going through right now. We just have to win as many games as we can. Whatever happens, happens with the tournament. It's out of our hands at this point. We just have to go out there and compete every day and try to win as many games as you can. If we take care of business the rest of the season and at the Big 12 tournament, then we will put ourselves in a good place and hopefully the committee will take that into consideration and put us in.

NOTES

- The win tonight moved Texas to 16-7 at home this season. The Horns are hitting .278 on the year at UFCU Disch Falk-Field with a .795 OPS, and the pitching staff boasts a 2.05 ERA.

- The Longhorns stole eight bases in tonight's game, the most since they also stole eight against UTSA on March 8, 2011.

- After recording a career-high four steals in tonight's contest, junior Ben Johnson has now recorded career highs in hits (5), home runs (2), RBIs (3), total bases (11) and steals (4) in games this season. The four steals were just one shy of the school record.

- The two home runs tonight by seniors Collin Shaw and Brooks Marlow mark the eighth multi-home run game of the season for Texas, after having just two in 2014. Shaw has hit four home runs this season after having zero in his first three seasons and Marlow's five are a career high for him.

- The two homers tonight also give the Horns 12 long balls at UFCU Disch-Falk Field this season in 23 games after hitting just five in 2014 in 33 games.

- The one hit surrendered in tonight's game was the fewest by the pitching staff since May 16, 2014 when Dillon Peters and Morgan Cooper combined on a no-hitter at Kansas State

- After not being charged with any runs in two innings tonight, Jake McKenzie earned his second career win and lowered his season ERA to 0.61 in 14 2/3 innings.

- Senior bullpen catcher Grant Martin got in on his first career game action, pinch-hitting for designated hitter Taylor Stell in the seventh inning.