Texas baseball falls, 11-5, to Arkansas, faces Florida in must-win game Tuesday

By Habeab Kurdi

OMAHA, Neb. — A close game got out of hand in a hurry after a nearly three-hour rain delay, and the Longhorns couldn’t turn their fortunes around in time as Arkansas took an 11-5 win Sunday in Omaha.

Texas will face Florida at 1 p.m. Tuesday, after the Gators lost, 6-3, Sunday night to Texas Tech.

The Razorbacks saturated the base paths in an eight-run sixth inning, piling up 15 hits total in the win. Meanwhile,[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Arkansas was able to hold off the Texas bats just enough early on, limiting hot-hitting UT second baseman Kody Clemens to a 1-for-5 day with two strikeouts.

“You can’t afford to pitch behind against Arkansas,” Texas head coach David Pierce said, “and that’s what happened when we got unraveled.”

The Longhorns were looking ahead immediately after the loss.

“Everyone’s down right now, but I’m sure everyone will get over it,” Texas center fielder Tate Shaw said. “It’s baseball. You’ve got to forget.”

Texas (42-22) took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth inning, thanks to an RBI sacrifice fly from leadoff hitter David Hamilton in the top half of the inning. Just like the weather would minutes later, things turned in a hurry for Texas when a would-be inning-ending double play went awry when Hamilton’s turn and throw to first pulled Jake McKenzie off the bag, allowing Arkansas left fielder Heston Kjerstad to reach first safely, extending the inning.

Three pitches later, Luke Bonfield sent a screamer over the wall in left for a two-run homer to put the Razorbacks (45-19) ahead, 3-2. The Longhorns had a chance at redemption when Arkansas botched a double play attempt in the top of the sixth, giving Texas a runner at second with one out, but Texas was unable to strike and a lengthy rain delay in the bottom of the sixth helped lead to the Longhorns loss.

“It looked like David felt he had to rush,” said Pierce, noting he had not yet talked to his shortstop about the play immediately following the game.

Though he had pitched fairly well up until that point, two singles allowed by Nolan Kingham triggered a move to the bullpen by Pierce, bringing in Parker Joe Robinson, who has developed a reputation as something of a “Houdini” because of his ability to work his way out of tight spots. A hard-fought bases-loaded walk, followed by another walk, led to another change to lefty Josh Sawyer. Sawyer battled to a full count before issuing a third straight Texas walk, putting the Longhorns in a 5-2 hole.

At the same time, a hole in the sky opened up, leading to a downpour that prompted the lengthy rain delay.

Kingham, whose record fell to 8-5 after giving up nine hits and five runs over five innings, accepted blame for some mistakes with his pitches, and gave the Razorbacks credit for taking advantages when he served up pitches the Hogs could hit.

“They found a lot of barrels today,” Kingham said. “And I left a few mistakes up and they hammered it. I mean, it’s baseball.”

When the skies cleared, Texas turned to Chase Shugart in a bases-loaded, no outs situation. But the Razorbacks followed with two hits and a hit-by-pitch as they poured it on after the delay, with the Longhorns allowing a season-high eight runs in the sixth inning to go behind 11-2.

“Hindsight is a beautiful thing,” Pierce said. “You look back at that and you would really say, ‘should have stuck with Nolan.’ But Parker Joe hadn’t walked two guys in the entire year back-to-back, and that’s what happened, and it just unraveled. We tried to get settled down with Chase (Shugart) right there and finish the inning and just, again, they just continued to hit and created a huge deficit.”

Texas, which also lost both regular-season games against Arkansas this season, never quit quit in the latter innings, scoring two in the top of the eighth before leaving the bases loaded with the score 11-4, and again in the ninth, as Texas plated a run on a Zach Zubia double before ending the game with two more runners on base.

The Longhorns used seven pitchers in the game, giving their staff valuable experience heading into their next game in the double-elimination tournament. At the plate, Shaw was 3-for-3 with a run scored and a walk, while Austin Todd came in late and added two RBI on a single in the eighth.

“I don’t really take anything away from it,” Shaw said. “I mean, we lost the game so it doesn’t really matter in the end.”

Pierce said that was a strategy late in the game to give as many of his guys experience on the big stage as possible, knowing Texas will need every little bit from everyone to keep their College World Series dreams alive.

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