The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Stanford
No. 23 Baseball preview: vs. Stanford [February 25-28)
02.24.2016 | Baseball
The Longhorns open the four-game series on Thursday at 6 p.m.
No. 23 Texas (2-1, 0-0 Big 12) vs. Stanford (3-1, 0-0 Pac 12)
February 25-28, 2016
Where: Austin, Texas • UFCU Disch-Falk Field (7,373)
Times: Thursday at 6 p.m. | Friday at 6:30 p.m. | Saturday at 3:30 p.m. | Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
TV: Longhorn Network
Talent: Keith Moreland (Play-by-Play), Greg Swindell (Analyst)
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM
Talent: Roger Wallace and Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Bill Little (Analyst)
Live Stats: TexasSports.com
All-time Series: Stanford leads 34-31-7
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
THURSDAY
UT – Jr. LHP Josh Sawyer (0-0, 0.00)
STANFORD – Fr. LHP Kris Bubic (0-0, 0.00)
FRIDAY
UT – So. RHP Kyle Johnston (0-0, 2.25)
STANFORD – Fr. RHP Tristan Beck (1-0, 0.00)
SATURDAY
UT – Sr. LHP Ty Culbreth (1-0, 1.80)
STANFORD – LHP Chris Castellanos (1-0, 1.50)
SUNDAY
UT – So. RHP Connor Mayes (0-0, 0.00)
STANFORD – RHP Brett Hanewich (1-0, 0.00)
THE MATCHUP
Stanford leads the all-time series, 34-31-7, with the most recent meeting coming last season when the teams split a four-game set in California. At UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Texas leads the series 17-13-1.
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS
SERIES PROMOTIONS — Men's Athletics Director Mike Perrin will throw out the ceremonial first pitch prior to Sunday's game…kids can run the bases following the conclusion of the game.
LAST WEEKEND — In their season-opening weekend, the Longhorns (2-1) took two of three from UNLV…on Friday night, Texas lead through seven innings before a game-tying triple knotted the game at three-all…in the 12th, Rebels catcher Andrew Yazdanbakhsh homered over the left field fence to put UNLV up 4-3…the Longhorns did not trail in either of the final two games and produced double-digit hits in both.
A LOOK AT STANFORD — Stanford (3-1) took two of three from No. 25 Cal State-Fullerton over the weekend and defeated UC Davis on the road, 5-2…held Fullerton to 1 run over the first two games before allowing 4 in game three… Stanford head coach Mark Marquess is third among active coaches and fourth all-time with 1,557 career wins.
EXTRA BASES — After an 0-for-5 effort on Friday, Patrick Mathis hit a home run in each of the two remaining games in the series…the first homer went 408-feet to center and Sunday's went to the opposite field…Mathis also added a double on Sunday…C/DH Michael Cantu racked up four doubles on the weekend.
MILESTONE TRACKER — With his win on Saturday, Garrido reached 800 career victories as head coach of the Longhorns…he is 48 wins away from 2,000 in his collegiate career.
HALL OF FAMER — On January 8, Garrido was inducted into the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Hall of Fame…his induction gave the Longhorns program four ABCA Hall of Famers, as he joined Billy Disch (inducted in 1966), Bibb Falk (1968) and Cliff Gustafson (1992).
WHERE THEY RANK — Texas is ranked No. 23 by D1Baseball.com for the second straight week…in its preseason rankings, D1Baseball.com ranked RHP Nolan Kingham (No. 36) and LHP Nick Kennedy (No. 74) on its list of Top 100 Freshmen entering the season while both UT backstops made the Top 50 Catchers list (Barrera at No. 13, Cantu at No. 30. Bret Boswell came in at No. 29 on the Top 50 Shortstops list and Joe Baker ranked No. 29 with Second Baseman.
ALUMNI GAME — On February 6, the current Longhorns team took down a group made up primarily of UT alumni, 4-0…in that game, LHP Josh Sawyer held the alumni hitless through four innings, while LHP Ty Culbreth followed with four scoreless innings of his own…Kody Clemens and Patrick Mathis each had two hits apiece while Michael Cantu reached base three times…in addition to the alumni who attended the game, those who played in it included: Cameron Rupp, Kevin Keyes, Ben Johnson, Brooks Marlow, Drew Stubbs, Erich Weiss, Kirby Bellow, Taylor Jungmann and Andrew McKirahan.
BIG 12 COACHES SPLIT — In the Big 12 Preseason Coaches' Poll, TCU was selected to win the league title with 57 points, though the top three teams were separated by just four points…the first-place votes were also split among the top three teams with TCU, Oklahoma State and Texas each receiving three first-place votes from the league's coaches.
HAPPY AT HOME — Twenty of the Longhorns first 25 games are set to take place at home in Austin…the only road games in that time come at Texas State (March 1), at UCLA (March 11-13) and at Texas A&M (March 15)…overall, Texas plays just 18 of its 52 games away from UFCU Disch-Falk Field…among those 18 games is an April 12 contest against the University of Houston at Costellation Field in Sugar Land, Texas, though the Longhorns will be considered the home team in that matchup.
RANKED OPPONENTS — The Longhorns' non-conference schedule includes matchups against No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 13 California, No. 14 UCLA and No. 22 Houston, as ranked in D1Baseball.com's most recent poll.
LAST YEAR — A year removed from a College World Series appearance, the 2015 Longhorns finished 30-27 on the season but took home their record fifth Big 12 Conference Tournament title…Texas reached 30 wins for the 16th time in the last 17 seasons…with the Big 12 Tournament win, the Longhorns made their 57th NCAA Regional appearance, the most ever in Division I, and 15th under Head Coach Augie Garrido.
LONGHORNS IN THE DRAFT — Five Longhorns from the 2015 team were taken in the Major League Baseball June Draft: RHP Parker French (5th round), SS C.J. Hinojosa (11th round), OF Ben Johnson (11th round), LHP Kirby Bellow (26th round) and 2B Brooks Marlow (29th round)…four current freshmen were also taken: INF Kody Clemens (35th round), INF Matthew Schmidt (37th round), OF Tyler Rand (39th round) and RHP Nolan Kingham (39th round)…during Garrido's tenure as head coach at Texas, 105 Longhorns have been taken in the draft.
INNINGS EATER — Texas is without last year's innings leader, French,who tallied 91 innings on the year, but Mayes compiled the second-most innings pitched (66.1) followed by Culbreth (54.2) and LHP Josh Sawyer (46.2).
LONGHORN LONG BALL — Barrera, returns as the Longhorns top home run hitter last season with nine but the next four homer producers—Hinojosa (7), Marlow (6), Johnson (5) and Shaw (5)—all either graduated or were lost to the draft.
'15 ACCOLADES — C Tres Barrera earned second-team All Big 12 honors last season…INF Bret Boswell, C Michael Cantu and RHP Connor Mayes were all named to the league's All-Freshman Team…Mayes also earned Co-Most Oustanding Pitcher honors (along with RHP Parker French) at the Big 12 Tournament while OF Zane Gurwitz earned the Most Outstanding Player nod…INF Joe Baker, Barrera, Boswell and INF Brooks Marlow were named to the All-Tournament Team.
WATCH 'EM — All but one of Texas' home games at UFCU Disch-Falk Field will be shown on Longhorn Network…former Longhorn greats Keith Moreland and Greg Swindell will handle the play-by-play and color analyst duties, respectively…both broadcasters have their numbers retired at UFCU Disch-Falk Field…when Texas hosts TCU on March 25, FOX Sports 1 will take over the broadcast as a part of its season-long Big 12 schedule…the Longhorns will also be shown on FS1 on April 1 while playing at Oklahoma.
HEAR 'EM — In partnership with IMG-College, Texas home games will be broadcast on the Austin Radio Network, primarily on 104.9 The Horn…Garrido will also call in to the station on a weekly basis.
