Baseball rolls over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 12-1, to even season record at 4-4
AUSTIN, Texas — A two-hit performance by five Texas pitchers helped the Longhorns to capture a 12-1 victory over Texas A&M Corpus Christi Tuesday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The game left both the Longhorns and Islanders with 4-4 records.
"Very clean game, thankful for the way our guys played," Texas head coach David Pierce said. "I really felt like we were pretty stoic and pretty bitter after Saturday's [loss to BYU]. We went back to work and played a very complete game."
Texas starter Kolby Kubichek threw three near-perfect innings, allowing just two baserunners and striking out four Islander batters to pick up the win and even his record at 1-1.
Though three innings is typically considered a short outing for a starter, Pierce confirmed postgame that Kubicheck will start Sunday at Houston, and Tuesday's start was simply an opportunity to allow the junior to find his rhythm on the mound.
"He's starting on Sunday," Pierce said. "That was the complete plan right there, for us to start him in a short start and get him ready to go on Sunday.
"I thought he was as sharp as he could be."
With Kubicheck leading the Horns on the mound, the Texas offense was able to get going early, pushing four runs across the plate in the bottom half of the first.
Leadoff hitter Mike Antico, who entered the game 6-of-29 (.207) on the season, swatted a double to right field on just the fourth pitch of the contest. After right fielder Douglas Hodo III and shortstop Trey Faltine drew consecutive walks, third baseman Cam Williams stepped to the plate with no outs and the bases loaded. Though Williams grounded into a fielder's choice, Antico was able to score and give Texas the 1-0 lead.
The Horns never trailed in the contest, as first baseman Zach Zubia followed in the next at-bat, hitting a triple that scored both Williams and Faltine. An error on Islanders shortstop Steven Rivera with Texas catcher DJ Petrinsky at the plate scored Zubia with UT's fourth run of the first; all four runs crossed the plate before a single out was recorded.
That was the pattern throughout the contest. Antico hit his first home run as a Longhorn to lead off the second, putting Texas up, 5-0. The Horns added another run with one out in the frame to extend the lead to 6-0 by the time the third inning got underway.
Redshirt freshman Justin Eckhardt picked up right were Kubicheck left off, though the righty walked three batters, and allowed Texas A&M CC to score its only run of the contest on a fielder's choice with one out and runners on first and second in the top of the sixth, at which point Texas already led, 10-1.
That lead was in part due to the Longhorns' three-run fifth that included phenomenal two-out hitting, as Hodo hit an RBI single right past the glove of Islanders reliever Daniel Nelson, and Faltine doubled down the left field line, scoring two more.
Texas will battle Texas State in San Marcos at 6 p.m. Wednesday before heading southeast for a three-game set at Houston from Friday through Sunday.
"Texas State is going to be a team that's going to compete for the Sun Belt (title)," Pierce said. "You're playing a quality team that is 25 minutes up the road, and they're tough. They're going to test us for sure."
