The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Sam Houston State
Baseball preview: at Sam Houston State [Feb. 22]
02.21.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns make their first ever trip to Huntsville to take on the Bearkats.
TEXAS at SAM HOUSTON STATE
February 22, 2017
Where: Huntsville, Texas (Don Sanders Stadium)
Time: 6:30 p.m. CT
TV: Spectrum Sports
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM—Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Bill Little (Analyst)
Live stats: StatBroadcast.com
All-time series: Texas leads, 74-19
Complete Game Notes | 2017 Fact Book Information
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
WEDNESDAY—Sam Houston State RHP Dakota Mills (n/a) vs. Texas RHP Nolan Kingham (0-1, 0.00)
GAME NOTES
THE MATCHUP—Wednesday marks the first ever meeting between the programs in Huntsville…90 of the previous 93 matchups came in Austin…Texas leads the all-time series 74-19 with wins in each of the past two seasons…SHSU's last win came on March 2, 2014, a 5-0 victory over the Longhorns.
A NEW CHAPTER—Friday marked David Pierce's first game at the helm of the Texas Baseball program…Pierce was named head coach on June 29, 2016, making him just the fifth Longhorn head coach since 1911 (with the exception of the war years of 1943-45 when Blair Cherry was at the helm) and the 13th head coach in 122 years of Texas baseball…Pierce—along with assistant coach Sean Allen, assistant coach Philip Miller and volunteer coach Phil Haig—came to Texas after two years at Tulane and three years at Sam Houston State.
FROM HUNTSVILLE TO AUSTIN—Pierce began his head coaching career with a three-year stint at Sam Houston State from 2012-14…Pierce, along with Allen, Miller, and Haig, won three straight Southland Conference championships during their tenure…Miller was also an assistant at Sam Houston State from 2007 to 2009 and earned his master's degree from SHSU in 2010.
A LOOK AT THE BEARKATS—Sam Houston State is currently ranked No. 18 in the Collegiate Baseball poll, where Texas is currently at No. 25…the Bearkats went 2-1 in their opening weekend series vs. Nevada at Don Sanders Stadium.
NEXT UP—Texas hosts a three-game series vs. UCONN beginning Friday…Friday's contest is scheduled for 4 p.m. CT while Saturday is set for 2 p.m. and the finale is scheduled for noon…it will be UCONN's first trip to Austin.
LONGHORNS IN THE DRAFT—Texas returns eight of its nine starting position players from last season after C Tres Barrera was drafted in the sixth round by the Washington Nationals…among starting pitchers, all return with the exception of LHP Ty Culbreth who graduated and was drafted in the eighth round by the Colorado Rockies.
FENCES FORWARD—UFCU Disch-Falk Field saw some renovations this winter as a new FieldTurf was installed and the outfield dimensions have been changed…the left-field line remains 340', center field remains '400 and the park remains 325' down the right-field line, however, the left-center field gap moves from 384' to 370' and the right-center field gap moves from 384' to 365'.
D1 POWER RANKINGS—Several Longhorns appeared in the D1Baseball.com position power rankings…RHP Morgan Cooper (No. 15), RHP Kyle Johnston (No. 61), Nolan Kingham (No. 128) and RHP Connor Mayes (No. 135) were ranked among starting pitchers…RHP Chase Shugart (No. 36) made this list of relievers…OF Patrick Mathis ranked No. 35 among D1 outfielders…INF Bret Boswell (No. 46) made the third basemen list, INF/OF Zane Gurwitz ranked No. 32 among second basemen and 1B/RHP Kacy Clemens ranked No. 42 on the first basemen list…RHP Blair Henley (No. 90) and INF David Hamilton (No. 99) made the Top 100 Freshman rankings.
D1 PREVIEW—Texas is projected to finish fourth in the Big 12 according to the D1Baseball.com staff, with RHP Morgan Cooper selected as the preseason Pitcher of the Year favorite…in D1Baseball's Top Prospects (2017 Draft) list, four Texas players ranked in the top seven—RHP Morgan Cooper (No. 1), RHP Kyle Johnston (No. 3), OF Patrick Mathis (No. 6) and INF Bret Boswell (No. 7).
PRESEASON POLL—In the Big 12 preseason coaches' poll, Texas was selected to finish fourth behind preseason favorite TCU (64), Oklahoma State (54) and Texas Tech (48), all three of whom reached the College World Series last season…a different league team has won each of the past six Big 12 titles with Texas the last squad to repeat as regular season champions ('09-11).
OTHER RANKINGS—The Longhorns are currently ranked in a pair of national polls: Perfect Game ranks Texas No. 16 in its poll while Collegiate Baseball put the Longhorns at No. 25.
RANKED OPPONENTS—The Longhorns' schedule includes matchups against preseason No. 1 TCU, No. 13 UL Lafayette, No. 14 Texas Tech, No. 20 Texas A&M and No. 23 Rice, ranked according to D1Baseball.com.
HOME SWEET HOME—Twenty-one of the Longhorns first 27 games are set to take place at home in Austin…the only road games in that time come at Sam Houston State (Feb 22), Stanford (March 2-5) and Texas State (March 21)…overall, Texas plays just 20 of its 54 games away from UFCU Disch-Falk Field…among those 20 games is a March 28 game against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi held at Whataburger Field in Corpus Christi and an April 25 game against Louisiana at Constellation Field in Sugar Land.
WATCH 'EM—All but one Longhorns home games at UFCU Disch-Falk Field will be shown on Longhorn Network…Lowell Galindo will take over play-by-play duties this season while former Longhorn greats Keith Moreland and Greg Swindell will handle the color analyst duties…both broadcasters have their numbers retired at UFCU Disch-Falk Field…when Texas hosts Oklahoma on April 7, FOX Sports 1 will take over the broadcast as a part of its season-long Big 12 schedule.
HEAR 'EM—In partnership with IMG-College, Texas games will be broadcast on the Austin Radio Network, primarily on 104.9 The Horn and AM 1260.
