The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
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Kansas
Baseball preview: at Kansas [March 31-April 2]
03.30.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns head to Lawrence for their first Big 12 Conference road series of the year.
TEXAS (18-10, 3-3) at KANSAS (10-14, 1-2)
March 31-April 2, 2017
Where: Lawrence, Kansas
Time: Friday at 6 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m., Sunday at 1 p.m.
TV: Jayhawk Network Television or ESPN3 in Austin
Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM—Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Roger Wallace (Analyst)
Live stats: sidearmstats.com/kansas/baseball
All-time series: Texas leads, 47-22
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS?
FRIDAY—Kansas RHP Sean Rackoski (3-2, 2.84) vs. Texas RHP Nolan Kingham (3-2, 0.72)
?SATURDAY—Kansas LHP Taylor Turski (1-2, 3.07) vs. Texas RHP Morgan Cooper (3-1, 1.63)
?SUNDAY—Kansas RHP Jackson Goddard (2-1, 4.15) vs. Texas RHP Blair Henley (2-2, 4.30)
SERIES NOTES?
THE MATCHUP—Texas and Kansas face off in the Longhorns' first Big 12 Conference road series of the season…the two sides will meet for the 70th time on Friday night.
A LOOK AT THE JAYHAWKS—Kansas is coming off a Tuesday night loss to Minnesota…the Jayhawks are led on the mound by Friday night starter Sean Rackoski, who sports at 2.84 ERA and a 3-2 record…he's struck out 25 compared to just 8 walks.…at the plate, Matt McLaughin leads the Jayhawks with a .337/.430/.410 slash line…he also leads the team with 12 RBI…the Jayhawks are currently 1-2 in Big 12 play, taking one game against TCU.
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—Texas is coming off a Tuesday night 12-2 win over Texas A&M - Corpus Christie and a three-game sweep of Big 12 foe K-State over the weekend…the Longhorns shut out Kansas State in games one and two of the series, with Nolan Kingham tossing the first complete game shutout of his career on Friday night…on Saturday, Morgan Cooper threw eight shutout innings while striking out 11…K-State put up 5 runs in Sunday's game, ending a streak of 30 straight shutout innings for Texas dating back to Wednesday vs. UTRGV…in the five games last week, Travis Jonoes led the way with a .435 average (10-for-23) with 6 RBI…Kody Clemens hit a pair of homers on the week, including a game-winning solo homer on Sunday vs. K-State.
NEXT UP—Texas will face Sam Houston Staate on Tueday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field before hosting #25 Oklahoma in a three-game Big 12 Conference series.
KING(HAM) OF THE CONFERENCE—RHP Nolan Kingham was named Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Week for his complete game shutout effort on Friday night vs. K-State…the sophomore allowed just 4 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5 on 111 pitches in a career-high 9 innings of work.
DEEEEFENSE—The Longhorns' defense has been sturdy so far this season…Texas is fielding at a .985 clip, good for 2nd-best in the nation…the Horns have also turned 33 double plays, the most in the country…most of the DPs have been compliments of David Hamilton, Bret Boswell and Kacy Clemens.
TATER TAKETH—In the last week, Tate Shaw has both provided and taken away a homer…on Tueday night, Shaw hit a grand slam to give the Longhorns a 4-2 lead…it was the first grand slam for Texas since Mark Payton hit one on May 21, 2012…he finished with 5 RBI in the game…in the 4th inning on Sunday vs. K-State, Tate Shaw robbed a would-be two-run homer off the bat of the Wildcats DH…the play earned him No. 2 on ESPN's SportsCenter Top 10 plays…since earning his first career start on March 8 vs. TAMU-CC, Shaw has produced for the Longhorns…in 12 starts so far this year, Shaw has gone 15-for-38 (..395) with 4 doubles, 10 runs scored, 2 homers and 12 RBI…he's reached base at a .600 clip and stolen three bases in that span.
MARCH JONES—After going just 6-for-30 with 12 strikeouts in 9 games in February, Travis Jones has since gone 21-for-67 (.313) with a homer, 5 doubles, 10 RBI and just 12 strikeouts in 19 games, raising his average .78 points.
INJURIES IN THE OUTFIELD—Junior Patrick Mathis pinch-hit on Sunday afternoon after he and senior Zane Gurwitz had been sidelined since March 14 night vs. Texas A&M…Gurwitz has tweaked his hamstring and is currently day-to-day…it's an injury that hampered him during the start of the season as well.
MCCANNIMAL—Catcher Michael McCann has been on a tear in this season…the redshirt-sophomore is 17-for-45 in 16 games (13 starts)…he has added 3 XBH and 6 RBI while going a perfect 3-for-3 on the basepaths.
#MOREOFTHOSE—Through 28 games, nine different Longhorns have gone deep giving Texas 22 total homers…Tate Shaw hit a grand slam and Michael Cantu homered on Tuesday night…Kody Clemens hit a game-winning homer on Sunday in the sixth inning…Tate Shaw hit his first career homer on March 17…Mathis picked up his first homer on March 8, a three-run shot…freshman Reynolds hit 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…Cantu hit the first, giving him his first home run since March 24, 2015 at Texas State after not hitting a home run in 2016.
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.
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).
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.
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