The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas A&M
Baseball preview: vs. No. 17 Texas A&M [March 14, 2017]
03.13.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns host the Aggies at UFCU Disch-Falk Field for the first time since 2012.
TEXAS (12-6) vs. TEXAS A&M (14-3)
March 14, 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, 242-125-5
Complete Game Notes
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
Texas A&M LHP John Doxakis (0-0, 6.14) vs. Texas LHP Nick Kennedy (2-0, 1.29)
GAME NOTES
THE MATCHUP—Texas hosts Texas A&M for the first time since April 29, 2012…the Aggies enter as the No. 17 team in the D1Baseball.com poll…last season, the Longhorns went to College Station, where they fell 5-4 on a walk off home run.
A LOOK AT THE AGGIES—Texas A&M is led by Braden Shewmaker and Logan Foster, who hit at .397 (31-of-78) and .377 (26-of-69) clips, respectively…the Aggies pitching staff has pitched to a 3.07 ERA this season…scheduled starter LHP John Doxakis has appeared in six games with three starts…Texas A&M also went 5-0 last week, with victories over UT-RGV (two) and Brown (three).
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—Texas went 5-0 last week, including a three-game sweep of UCLA…the Longhorns compiled 44 runs on 58 hits in the five games…
NEXT UP—Texas hosts No. 6 Texas Tech to open Big 12 Conference action…the squads will face off Friday at 6:30 p.m., Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
CLEMENS—Through 18 games this season, Kacy Clemens has compiled a .350 average (21-for-60) to go along with a team-best .633 slugging percentage…the senior also leads the squad in home runs (4), doubles (5) and RBI (13)…Clemens led the Horns offense in 2016 with a .303 average while hitting five homers… he hit two long balls on Feb 24 vs. UCONN, becoming the first Longhorn to hit two homers in a game since C.J Hinojosa on May 16, 2015 at Baylor…he also snagged his first career stolen base on Feb 26.
FRESHEST MEN—In last Tuesday and Wednesday's games, freshman combined to go 13-for-30 with 9 runs sccored, 14 RBI and 5 extra-base hits.
#MOREOFTHOSE—Through 18 games, eight different Longhorns have gone deep giving Texas 14 total homers…Clemens, Mathis and Reynolds all added a big fly this weekend…Mathis picked up his first homer on March 8, a three-run shot…freshman Reynolds picked up his first collegiate homer on Feb 26 vs. UConn…Kacy Clemens hit a pair of homers on Feb 24 vs. UConn…the Horns also hit two bombs in the Feb 22 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 seven home runs at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in eight games so far, after hitting just 15 in 34 games at home last year.
MCCANNIMAL—Backup catcher Michael McCann has been on a tear in limited duty so far this season…the redshirt-sophomore is 10-for-20 with two doubles, a triple and four RBI, including two on Sunday…the Cedar Ridge native has a .524 OBP and a .700 SLG.
CLEANUP—Freshman Austin Todd had a spectacular week…the Round Rock native batted cleanup in each of the five games last week and went 7-for-17 with four doubles and nine RBI…he had back-to-back three-RBI games last Tuesday and Wednesday…so far this season he's reached base at a .462 clip, walking eight times to just three strikeouts.
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 OPPONENTS—The Longhorns' upcoming schedule includes matchups against current No. 1 TCU, No. 6 Texas Tech, No. 15 UL-Lafayette, No. 17 Texas A&M, and No. 22 Baylor… Texas has also faced current No. 12 Stanford.
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.
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 with a pair of victories 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.
HOME SWEET HOME—Twenty-one of the Longhorns first 27 games 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.
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).
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.
