The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Lamar
#21 Baseball preview: vs. Lamar [Feb. 28, 2017]
02.27.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns look to avenge last season's loss to Lamar on Tuesday night.
TEXAS (5-3) vs. LAMAR (6-2)
February 28, 2017
Where: Austin, Texas (UFCU Disch-Falk Field)
Time: 6:30 p.m. CT
TV: Longhorn Network
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM—Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Bill Little (Analyst)
Live stats: SidearmStats.com/Texas/Baseball
All-time series: Texas leads, 31-7
Complete Game Notes
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
TUESDAY—Lamar RHP Brett Brown (0-0, 2.08) vs. Texas RHP Connor Mayes (0-1, 4.50)
GAME NOTES
THE MATCHUP—Texas and Lamar are meeting for the 39th time in school history with the Longhorns leading the all-time series 31-7 over the Cardinals…Lamar won the last meeting, 4-2, in Austin on March 29, 2016.
A LOOK AT THE CARDINALS—Lamar enters the contest at 6-2 after a series split with Fairfield over the weekend…OF Reid Russell leads the Cardinals offense so far with a .417 batting average (12-for-29)…he also leads the team in HR (2) and in RBI (10).
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—Texas compiled a 4-1 week, getting a win over Sam Houston State on the road before taking 2-of-3 from visiting UCONN…the Longhorns got impressive starts from RHP Morgan Cooper (7-IP, 4-H, 1-ER, 1-BB, 8 K) and Kyle Johnston (7-IP, 3-H, 2-ER, 3-BB, 7-K) while getting 4.2 innings of one-hit baseball from reliever Jake McKenzie in game three.
NEXT UP—Texas heads to Palo Alto, Calif., for a four-game series against Stanford beginning Thursday…the two sides split the four-game series in Austin last season but the Stanford leads the all-time series 36-33-1.
A NEW CHAPTER—February 17 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.
#MOREOFTHOSE—Through eight games, six different Longhorns have gone deep…Kacy Clemens hit two long balls in Friday's game against UCONN, becoming the first Longhorn to hit two homers in a game since C.J Hinojosa on May 16, 2015 at Baylor…freshman Ryan Reynolds picked up his first collegiate homer in Sunday's series finale…the Horns also hit two bombs in Wednesday night's game at Sam Houston State…Michael Cantu hit the first, giving him his first home run since March 24, 2015 at Texas State after not hitting a home run all of last season, and Travis Jones hit the second, a three-run shot…Texas has hit six home runs at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in seven games so far, after hitting just 15 in 34 games at home last year.
SENIOR CLEMENS—Through eight games this season, Kacy Clemens continues to lead the Texas offense with his .417 average (10-for-24)…the senior also leads the squad in home runs (3) and RBI (7)…Clemens led the Horns offense in 2016 with a .303 average while hitting five homers…he also snagged his first career stolen base on Sunday.
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'.
RANKED—The Longhorns have entered the polls for the first time this season after their 4-1 week…D1Baseball puts the Longhorns at No. 21…Texas also entered the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll at No. 24 and remained at No. 16 in the Perfect Game Top 25.
MILESTONES—Pierce's first win with the program came on Saturday, February 18 over Rice in game one of the doubleheader…on Wednesday night, Pierce collected his 200th career win, a 7-2 defeat of Sam Houston State, the program where Pierce first got his start as a collegiate head coach…he earned his first series win at Texas this past weekend with a pair of wins vs. UCONN.
D1 POWER RANKINGS—Several Longhorns appeared in the D1Baseball.com preseason 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).
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.
LONGHORNS IN THE DRAFT—Texas returned 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.
HOME SWEET HOME—Twenty-one of the Longhorns first 27 games are set to take place at home in Austin…the only road games are 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.
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).
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.
