The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
8-4
Northwestern
3-7
Offensive onslaught sends No. 23 Baseball to 12-1 win over Northwestern
03.04.2018 | Baseball
With the run-rule victory on Sunday, the Longhorns secured the series win.
AUSTIN, Texas—No. 23 Texas Baseball used 15 hits, including six for extra bases, to power past Northwestern in seven innings on Sunday afternoon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The Longhorns scored in all but one inning of the run-rule victory, which secured the series win, three games to one.
Once again, Texas was bolstered by the top of the order. The one, two, and three hitters—David Hamilton, Masen Hibbeler, and Kody Clemens—all notched a triple in the game, the first time the Longhorns have hit three three-baggers in a game since May 11, 2013 vs. Texas Southern. Hamilton finished with two hits, Hibbeler pounded out a career-best four knocks, and Clemens extended his season-long hitting streak to 12 games.
Hibbeler got things started for Texas in the first with a one-out single through the left side. After Clemens walked, Zach Zubia ripped a single to right-center to plate Hibbeler and put the Longhorns on the board. Ryan Reynolds followed it with a run-scoring single of his own and Texas led, 2-0, after the first.
In the second, Texas added another crooked number. Four straight hits—a Hamilton double, Hibbeler single, Clemens triple, and Zubia single—pushed the Texas lead to 5-0 in the inning, giving starter Matteo Bocchi some insurance.
Bocchi, the righthander from Parma, Italy, made his first career start at Texas and went 4.2 solid innings. He allowed just two hits and one run while walking four and fanning a pair. Behind Bocchi, freshman Bryce Elder (2-1) entered and picked up the win with 2.2 innings of one-hit baseball. Elder did not walk a batter, stranded two, and struck out four in the game.
The Longhorns added a run in the third with a Hamilton triple and plated three more in the fifth thanks to a Michael McCann RBI single and yet another RBI single off the bat of Hibbeler.
In the sixth, Ryan Reynolds hit his second homer of the series—this time a solo shot—to make it 10-1 in favor of the Longhorns before Texas added two in the bottom of the seventh to trigger the run-rule.
Texas returns to action on Thursday night for the first of four games against No. 8 Stanford at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Elder, Bryce (2-0)
L: Katz (0-2)
Batting:
RBI: Dunn, J. 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Kaplan 1
SB: Kaplan 1
HBP: Maxwell 1
Batting:
2B: Hamilton, David 1 ; Shaw, Tate 1
3B: Hamilton, David 1 ; Hibbeler, Masen 1 ; Clemens, Kody 1
HR: Reynolds, Ryan 1
RBI: Hamilton, David 1 ; Hibbeler, Masen 2 ; Clemens, Kody 1 ; Zubia, Zach 3 ; Reynolds, Ryan 3 ; McCann, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Hamilton, David 1 ; Hibbeler, Masen 3 ; Clemens, Kody 3 ; Reynolds, Ryan 1 ; Shaw, Tate 1 ; Ellis, Duke 2 ; McCann, Michael 1
SB: Hibbeler, Masen 1 ; Shaw, Tate 1 ; Ellis, Duke 1
