The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UCLA
Baseball preview: vs. UCLA [March 10-12]
03.09.2017 | Baseball
The Longhorns host a three-game series against visiting UCLA.
TEXAS (9-6) vs. UCLA (6-5)
March 10-12, 2017
Where: Austin, Texas (UFCU Disch-Falk Field)
Time: Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT; Saturday at 4 p.m.; Sunday at 1 p.m.
TV: Longhorn Network
?Radio: 104.9 FM The Horn/1260 AM—Craig Way (Play-by-Play), Bill Little & Roger Wallace (Analysts)
Live stats: SidearmStats.com/Texas/Baseball
Complete Game Notes
PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS
FRIDAY UCLA RHP Griffin Canning (0-0, 0.00) vs. Texas RHP Nolan Kingham (2-1, 0.00)
SATURDAY UCLA TBD vs. Texas RHP Morgan Cooper (1-0, 1.89)
SUNDAY UCLA RHP Jon Olsen (0-0, 4.26) vs. Texas TBD
GAME NOTES
THE MATCHUP—Texas traveled to UCLA last season and dropped two-of-three to the Bruins…the Longhorns took game one and led in games two and three before falling…both teams rank in the top 20 in team ERA this season, with UCLA coming in at No. 8 (2.01) and Texas coming in at No. 18 (2.55).
A LOOK AT THE BRUINS—UCLA pitching has been among the best in the nation so far, led by RHP Griffin Canning (21-IP, 0-ER)…Canning has 32 strikeouts in 21 innings so far…on offense, Sean Bouchard has a .350 average in 11 games so far this year… he leads the team with 4 homers and 9 RBI.
A LOOK AT THE LONGHORNS—Texas dropped three of four over the weekend to No. 19 Stanford but picked up a 9-0 shutout win over visiting Richmond and a 15-0 shutout of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively…Bret Boswell leads the Longhorns with a .350 average while Austin Todd has racked up 7 hits, including three doubles and a triple, and 6 RBI in his last 3 games (all starts).
NEXT UP—Texas hosts No. 17 Texas A&M on Tuesday night in a midweek matchup…the Aggies won last year's game in College Station, 5-4.
STARTERS—Starting pitching for the Longhorns last weekend was stellar…Texas pitchers combined for 29.2 innings of work over four games, allowing just five runs, eight walks and 20 hits while striking out 20…Nolan Kingham, Kyle Johnston and Blair Henley each threw career-high number of innings (7.0, 8.2, 8.0, respectively)…on the season, Texas starting pitchers have compiled a 2.10 ERA (20-ER, 85.2-IP) so far including eight quality starts…Johnston and Morgan Cooper have recorded quality starts (at least 6.0 IP, three ER or less) in each of their three starts.
FRESH MEN—In 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 15 games, eight different Longhorns have gone deep giving Texas 11 total homers…Patrick Mathis picked up his first homer on Wednesday night, a three-run shot…freshman Ryan 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.
CLEMENS —Through 15 games this season, Kacy Clemens has compiled a .320 average (16-for-50)…the senior also leads the squad in home runs (3), doubles (4) and RBI (11)…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.
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'.
DROPPED OUT—After a 2-3 week, the Longhorns dropped out of the D1Baseball.com poll after coming in at No. 21 last week.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
