Baseball blanks Incarnate Word, on to critical three-game series against OU

Texas took it to Incarnate Word Tuesday in the lead-up to its most important series of the season.

The Longhorns blanked the visiting Cardinals, 9-0, at UFCU Disch-Falk Field behind six shutout innings from starter Coy Cobb and three-hit games from both Eric Kennedy and Tate Shaw.

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Now, with Oklahoma coming to Austin for a three-game set, Texas (26-25 overall, 6-14 in Big 12) needs a sweep to have a chance at the Big 12 Championship as the path to the title game became much more difficult after the series loss to Kansas earlier this month.

Only eight teams make the Big 12 tourney, and it looked like the Longhorns were on their way into the tournament with a couple wins over the Jayhawks, but after the sweep went the wrong way, Texas now needs some help to get back to the promised land.

The ‘Horns are in ninth place heading into the weekend series against the Sooners, starting Friday, and can make the tournament outright with a sweep of OU. The other possibility has Texas winning two-of-three in the series all while Kansas sweeps Kansas State over the weekend.

As the final weekend of play in the Big 12 approaches starting tomorrow, the Sooners and Jayhawks have identical 9-12 records in conference and the Wildcats are 8-13, putting those three teams in the 6-7-8 spots in the tournament (OU and Kansas are tied for sixth).

Both are daunting tasks for a team that has fallen short of expectations this season.

In the win over Incarnate Word, the Longhorns pushed across their first run with a Lance Ford opposite-field single in the bottom of the fourth.

.@lanceford13 rakes, y’all. #HookEm pic.twitter.com/BHPCu6wUwg

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) May 15, 2019

Kennedy then pushed across two more runs with a bases-loaded single to give Texas a 3-0 lead and put Cobb on his way to his first career victory.

.@erockken21 doing the thing to put the Horns up, 3-0, after four! #HookEm pic.twitter.com/jpSHLrKEJw

— Texas Baseball (@TexasBaseball) May 15, 2019

It was Kennedy again getting things going with a leadoff double in the seventh and coming in to score on an RBI single from Austin Todd. Shaw followed with his third hit after a walk from Ryan Reynolds to plate Todd to make it 5-0.

Texas scored four more in the eighth starting with an Ellis RBI single, a Zach Zubia double to score another run and finally a two-run double off the bat of Reynolds to put the score at 9-0.

The crucial three-game series against visiting Oklahoma starts Thursday at 6:30 p.m., with Game 2 set for 6:30 Friday. The finale is scheduled for Saturday afternoon at 2:30 p.m.

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