The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Texas Tech
Baseball preview: vs. No. 6 Texas Tech [March 17-19]
03.16.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns and Red Raiders open Big 12 action this weekend.
TEXAS (13-6) vs. #6 TEXAS TECH (14-4)
March 17-19, 2017
Where: Austin, Texas (UFCU Disch-Falk Field)
Time: Friday 6:30 p.m. CT; Saturday at 4 p.m. CT; Sunday at 1 p.m. CT
TV: Longhorn Network
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM—Roger Wallace, Tom Barfield (Play-by-Play), Bill Little (Analyst)
Live stats: SidearmStats.com/Texas/Baseball?
All-time series: Texas leads 112-44
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
?FRIDAY Texas Tech RHP Davis Martin (2-1, 3.57) vs. Texas RHP Nolan Kingham (2-1, 0.42)
SATURDAY Texas Tech LHP (3-0, 1.47) vs. Texas RHP Morgan Cooper (2-0, 1.88)
SUNDAY Texas Tech (2-0, 2.70) vs. Texas RHP Blair Henley (2-1, 3.00)
GAME NOTES
THE MATCHUP—Texas hosts No. 6 Texas Tech for a three-game series to open Big 12 Conference play…Last season, the Longhorns took two of three from the Red Raiders, including a 17-1 rout in the Sunday matchup…Friday's game will be the 157th meeting between the teams.
A LOOK AT THE RED RAIDERS—Texas Tech is led by Grant Little's .375 batting average…four Red Raiders have multiple homers this year…Orlando Garcia has a team-best 20 RBI while Hunter Hargrove is hitting .351 with three homers and 17 RBI…on the mound, TTU left-hander Steven Gingery is 3-0 with a 1.47 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 30.2 IP.
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—Texas went is currently on a six-game win streak that includes a series sweep over UCLA and a Tuesday night win over rival No. 17 Texas A&M…in sixgames since dropping three of four at Stanford, the Longhorns have raised their batting average 42 points from .203 to .245.
LAST GAME—Tuesday night's game against Texas A&M drew the largest crowd of the season with 6,985 in attendance…the Longhorns went up 4-1 before eventually winning it 4-3…Kacy Clemens made a game-saving play on a safety squeeze in the 8th to preserve the lead.
NEXT UP—Texas heads to San Marcos on Tuesday for a 6:30 p.m. game against the Texas State Bobcats before hosting UT-RGV on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
ST. PADDY'S DAY—Texas will wear shamrock Longhorns decals on their batting helmets and green wristbands in honor of St. Patrick's Day…the bases are also decorated with green decals.
CLEMENS—Through 19 games this season, Kacy Clemens has compiled a .365 average (23-for-63) to go along with a team-best .651 slugging percentage…the senior also leads the squad in home runs (4), doubles (6) and RBI (14)…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.
CLEANUP—Since moving to the cleanup spot on March 7, freshman Austin Todd has been hitting at a torrid pace…he's hit .371 with four doubles, nine RBI and seven runs scored…he's also walked three times to just one strikeout.
#MOREOFTHOSE—Through 19 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 11 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 11-for-23 with two doubles, a triple and five RBI, including two 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'.
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.
