The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
2-1
San Diego
1-2
No. 16 Baseball wins series over San Diego
02.18.2024 | Baseball
The Longhorns got great relief pitching from Cody Howard and Max Grubbs to hold off the Toreros.
AUSTIN, Texas – No. 16 Texas Baseball scored runs in five-consecutive innings to overcome an early deficit and beat San Diego 9-4 to win the series on Sunday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The Longhorns (2-1) picked up their first series win of the season and will continue their season-opening homestand against Houston Christian on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
With a total attendance of 22,802 for the three-game series, this is the largest total attendance for Opening Weekend in program history. The total weekend attendance ranks eighth overall for a three-game series at Texas. The Longhorns also had their largest Opening Day crowd ever, with an announced attendance of 7,935 on Friday night.
Cody Howard pitched four hitless innings of relief and allowed just one unearned run to pick up his first win of the season. Howard was called into the game with the bases loaded and nobody out in the second and was able to get out of it.
Max Grubbs followed Howard by pitching 2 2/3 innings of relief and allowed just one run on two hits with four strikeouts.
Jared Thomas set the table for the Texas offense yet again, going 1-for-3 with a double, two walks, two stolen bases and a team-high four runs scored.
Peyton Powell was 2-for-4 with two RBI and Jayden Duplantier went 1-for-3 with two RBI.
San Diego scored two runs in the top of the second inning on four walks and an error to chase starter Tanner Witt out of the game.
The Longhorns scratched out their first run in the bottom of the third after Thomas walked and Powell singled to put runners on the corners. The pair then executed a double steal to get Texas on the board and cut the lead to 2-1.
Texas tied the game up 2-2 in the fourth with a sacrifice fly by Duplantier. Porter Brown doubled to start the inning, Dee Kennedy worked a walk and Kimble Schuessler moved them into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt before Duplantier's sac fly.
The Toreros immediately retook the lead with another unearned run in the top of the fifth inning to go up 3-2.
The Longhorns grabbed their first lead of the game with three runs on just two hits in the bottom of the fifth. Thomas started it all with a double into the gap in right-center before four-straight free passes drove in two runs. Duplantier then legged out a two-out infield single to drive in the third run and make the score 5-3.
Texas tacked on a run to the lead in the sixth after Thomas worked a leadoff walk and advanced to second on a groundout. Jalin Flores then drove him in with an RBI single blooped down the right field line.
The Texas lead was extended even further with three more runs in the seventh to go up 9-3. Will Gasparino drove in the first run of the inning with an RBI single to left field and Powell drove in two more with an opposite field single to left.
San Diego got one run back in the eighth inning but that was all for the Toreros.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Howard, Cody (1-0)
L: GONZALEZ, Aidan (0-1)
Batting:
2B: GUREVITCH, Jack 1
RBI: WORTHINGTON, Will 2 ; WARD, Ryan 1
SH: SMITH, Austin 1
Base Running:
RUNS: DECRISCIO, Justin 1 ; GUREVITCH, Jack 2 ; PERAZA, Angelo 1
CS: WARD, Ryan 1
HBP: COSTELLO, Jack 1
Batting:
2B: Thomas, Jared 1 ; Brown, Porter 1
RBI: Powell, Peyton 2 ; Flores, Jalin 1 ; Brown, Porter 1 ; Belyeu, Max 1 ; Duplantier, Jayden 2 ; Gasparino, Will 1
SH: Schuessler, Kimble 1
SF: Duplantier, Jayden 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Thomas, Jared 4 ; Flores, Jalin 1 ; O'Dowd, Jack 1 ; Brown, Porter 1 ; Schuessler, Kimble 1 ; Duplantier, Jayden 1
SB: Thomas, Jared 2 ; Powell, Peyton 1
HBP: Powell, Peyton 1 ; Flores, Jalin 1 ; Brown, Porter 1 ; Duplantier, Jayden 1
