The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
TCU
Baseball preview: vs. No. 6 TCU [March 24-26]
03.23.2016 | Baseball
The Longhorns open up Big 12 Conference play with Top-10 TCU.
TEXAS (9-12) vs. TCU (17-3)
March 24-26, 2016
Where: Austin, Texas
Time: Thursday at 6 p.m., Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM
Talent: Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Bill Little (Analyst)
Live Stats: sidearmstats.com/texas/baseball
All-time Series: Texas leads, 220-66-2
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
FRIDAY: UT RHP Morgan Cooper (1-0, 2.50) vs. TCU Luken Baker (2-0, 1.03)
SATURDAY: UT LHP Ty Culbreth (3-2, 2.62) vs. TCU RHP Brian Howard (4-0, 2.37)
SUNDAY: UT RHP Kyle Johnston (1-1, 2.63) vs. TCU LHP Rex Hill (2-1, 4.63)
SERIES NOTES
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—The Longhorns are coming off an 11-2 rout of UTSA on Tuesday night…last weekend, Texas dropped two of three to visiting Tulane at UFCU Disch-Falk Field…after play on Friday night was suspended tied 1-1 after two innings, the game resumed on Saturday afternoon and the Longhorns ultimately fell 3-2…in the second game on Saturday, UT's offense erupted for 10 runs in the win…it was Ty Culbreth's fourth straight quality start…Tulane put up 5 runs on Texas on Sunday, leading to a 5-3 Longhorn defeat.
A LOOK AT THE HORNED FROGS—TCU enters the weekend series riding a five-game winning streak including a 6-4 midweek win against Abilene Christian on Tuesday…last weekend, the Horned Frogs swept West Virginia in a three-game set to open its Big 12 Conference action.…TCU's offense is led by Elliott Barzilli who is hitting at a .447 clip with five homers and 23 RBI on the season…the TCU offense is hitting .321 as a whole with 47 doubles, 11 triples, 17 homers and 150 RBI…Luken Baker, who is also hitting .358, leads the pitching staff with a 2-0 record and a 1.03 ERA in five starts on the hill…TCU has outscored its opponents 169-65 so far this year.
NEXT UP—Texas hosts Lamar on Tuesday night before heading to Norman for a three-game series against Oklahoma…heading into the weekend, the Sooners are 11-10-1 on the year.
UNDER PRESSURE—Freshman Kody Clemens is now batting .359 (14-for-39) with runners on base and is 3-for-6 with the bases loaded…he's 11-for-23 (.478) with runners in scoring position and 8-for-26 (.308) with 8 RBI with two outs in the inning.
REACHING BASE—After failing to reach base in the season opener, Kacy Clemens reached safely in his next 16 games before failing to reach on Sunday vs. Tulane… Travis Jones is currently riding a streak of 15 straight games in which he's reached safely while Kody Clemens has reached safely in 10 in a row.
BASES JUICED—The Longhorns are now 15-for-25 (.600) with the bases loaded on the season including a 3-for-3 effort on Tuesday vs. UTSA…Zane Gurwitz is now 3-for-3 on the season with them loaded while Kacy Clemens and Tres Barrera are 2-for-2 with the bags full and Bret Boswell is 2-for-3 on the year.…Jake McKenzie and Tyler Rand each have hits in their only bases-loaded at-bats.
OUTHIT 'EM—Texas outhit Tulane in each of the three games this past weekend but came out with just one win…on the year, the Longhorns have outhit their opponent in 15 of 21 games but are just 9-6 in those games.
MO' COOP—Redshirt sophomore Morgan Cooper slides into the Friday starter slot this weekend after making three Tuesday night starts…his last outing came on March 15 at Texas A&M…he went six innings and allowed three unearned runs.
A FAMILY AFFAIR—Familiar last names pepper the Longhorns roster as Kacy Clemens was joined by his brother, Kody, this season…their father, Roger, is a UT and MLB great…Nick Kennedy joined his brother, Ben, on the team this season…Kaleb Denny's father, David, also played at UT and Tate Shaw's brother, Collin. was on the Longhorns roster last season.
MILESTONE TRACKER—With his win on February 20 vs. UNLV, Garrido reached 800 career victories as head coach of the Longhorns…he is 41 wins away from 2,000 in his collegiate career.
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.
