Horns win three of four against Hawaii, improve to 13-4

As great as Texas has been on the mound and in the field, Augie Garrido belives his team’s most valuable asset goes deeper than that – it’s their attitude. And he didn’t like the way he thought they gave it away in Saturday’s 6-1 loss to Hawaii.

“Tension destroys rhythm and timing and this game is all about rhythm and timing,” head coach Augie Garrido said. “We were out of character and we had to get back into character by dumping yesterday’s game and the way we played it in the trash and learn from it. It’s the first we’d done that.”

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That was the first game of a doubleheader but the only one that finished that day. The second game was delayed by rain until Sunday, when play was resumed with the score tied, 2-2, going into the eighth inning. Morgan Cooper’s two shutout innings and a clutch go-ahead RBI single by Kacy Clemens allowed Texas to bounce[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] back with a 3-2 victory before the series finale started 30 minutes later.

The Longhorns won that contest, too, 4-1, thanks to a solid outing by starter Lukas Schiraldi, who allowed just one run on three hits over five innings, and an ability to manufacture runs. Texas scored its first two runs in the third inning, both on bunts, the first a safety squeeze by Jacob Felts and the second a drag bunt by Ben Johnson. Then, Mark Payton and Collin Shaw pulled off a double steal before C.J Hinojosa drove them both in with a single to right on the next pitch.

“You start to get lucky in this game when you score runs,” Garrido said. “You start to get lucky when you get hit on the fists and it goes over the first baseman’s head and there’s a runner on second. But, if he’s on first, you’re not as lucky. So get them into scoring position as often as you can and you have a better chance to get lucky more often.”

With the victory, Texas improved to 13-4 on the year, winning three out of four against the Rainbow Warriors this week. The Longhorns, winners of 13 of their last 15 games, lost nine games each of the past two seasons before winning their 13th but have yet to lose a weekend series this year.

“That’s the kind of game we’re going to have to play,” Payton said. “We’re going to have find ways to scratch runs out and manufacture what we did. It’s going to come different ways on different days. Today, it just happened to be the bunts and the steals. If that’s the way we have to win games on certain days, that’s what we’re going to do.”

Texas scored just 11 runs in the four-game series but continued to get great pitching performances and outstanding play on defense. Starters Nathan Thornhill, Parker French and Schiraldi combined to post a 1.93 ERA in the three wins of the series, which included another 3-2 win on Friday, while John Curtiss picked up his first two saves of the year in the series, cementing himself as the team’s closer.

The Longhorns face Texas State at home Tuesday night before beginning conference play with a three-game series, also at Disch-Falk Field, starting Friday against Kansas.

Curtiss claims closer role, Thornhill returns to rotation

As conference play nears, Augie Garrido is making some final tweaks to his pitching staff.

With sophomore right-hander John Curtiss fully recovered from the Tommy John surgery he underwent last year, Garrido said after Friday’s 3-2 in over Hawaii he’ll have Curtiss remain as the team’s closer. Senior right-hander Nathan Thornhill, who orginially held that role, will return to the Longhorns rotation, replacing junior right-hander Lukas Schiraldi.

“He’s very smooth on the mound,” Garrido said of Curtiss, who also pitched a perfect ninth inning of Sunday’s 4-1 win to pick up his second save of the year. “He’s not getting off-balance. He’s not changing arm angles. He’s just pitching. It looks pretty effortless. He spent a long time in rehab, man. It’s been over a year and a half.”

Thornhill has bounced between the rotation and the bullpen throughout his time at Texas, but will stay on as a starter for the time being. He’s made starts in each of the Longhorns’ four-game series this season and will now be a member of the squad’s three-man weekend rotation, joining juniors Parker French and Dillon Peters.

In seven outings this year, Thornhill has gone 3-0 with a 1.21 ERA and the only two saves of his career. He was a reliever his freshman year, started his sophomore season as the team’s ace before being relegated to the bullpen by year’s end before going back and forth between Sunday starter and middle reliever last year.

“Over his career here, he has started somewhat slow in innings one and two, which isn’t a good thing for a closer,” Garrido said. “But then, when he gets locked in, he’ll knock out five or six innings. That’s been his pattern. He has done that and he will do that again. So why don’t we get the innings he can pitch for us… let’s put him in the most comfortable position for himself.”

Horns thriving in one-run games

If last year’s Longhorns mastered the art of losing one-run games like Augie Garrido said they did, maybe the best reflection of how improved this year’s Longhorns in how they seem to be mastering the art of winning those one-run games.

Texas came into this week’s four game-series against Hawaii riding a five-game win streak, winning two of its last three games by a score of 3-2. The Longhorns won two of their first three games against the Rainbow Warriors by that exact score.

The Longhorns fell behind, 2-0, in Friday’s series opener before tying the game in the fourth inning by scoring two runs off Hawaii starter Matt Cooper, who hadn’t allowed an earned run in 21 innings this season entering the game.

Jacob Felts hit a leadoff triple in that fourth frame before scoring on a double by Andy McGuire, who scored the game-tying run on an RBI single by Collin Shaw. Felts came through again in the eighth inning when he drove home Mark Payton, who deftly avoided being tagged at home plate to score the go-ahead run and help give Texas a one-run victory.

“It has everything to do with the offseason program we went through,” French said. We feel like, no matter what the deficit is, we’re still going to win. Tonight, we knew 2-0 wasn’t going to beat us. We just stayed there, scratched and clawed, found a way to win. That’s just the ballclub we are.”

It took a couple days for the Longhorns to get their next one-run win. The second game of Saturday’s doubleheader was postponed due to rain. Play resumed Sunday afternoon with the game tied, 2-2, going into the eighth inning and it didn’t take long for Texas to break the tie.

After Morgan Cooper retired the side in the top of the eighth, Ben Johnson drew a one-out walk and stole second in the home half of the inning. Kacy Clemens knocked an RBI single past a diving Hawaii shortstop Austin Wobrock and Johnson scored to put the Longhorns on top, 3-2. Cooper induced a beautifully executed 6-4-3 double play to end the game in the ninth and give Texas its fourth 3-2 victory in its last six games.

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