Heartbreak hits Horns again in 9-8 loss to No. 17 WVU

By Riley Zayas
Horns Illustrated Contributor

AUSTIN, Texas — As the Texas Longhorns took the field for the second game of the series against West Virginia, a sense of urgency was evident throughout the team.

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After all, they had just lost their past five games, hadn’t won a series at home since March 17, and were on the verge of losing another series against the No. 17 ranked Mountaineers. If there was a must-win this month, it was the second game of this series.

However, the Mountaineers obviously had other plans, as they took the game and the series from the Longhorns, winning, 9-8, with two runs in the ninth inning Saturday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Power-focused first baseman Zach Zubia, who was 3-for-3 and connected on his fifth homer of the season, helped keep the ‘Horns in the game with his loud bat.

Following the game, he was nearly speechless.

“Baseball is a game of failure. Sometimes you’re going to come out and it’s not going to go your way,” Zubia said. “But we have to keep on playing and keep on grinding through it.”

In the end though, it was offense which earned West Virginia a come-from-behind win in the top of the ninth to send the Longhorns to another heartbreaking defeat.

“As we look at the games this past weekend, it’s one or two things here and there that are game-changers,” Zubia said, “so if you change those things, the outcome is totally different. I think we’re playing good baseball.”

Two quick hits to begin what turned out to a devastating ninth for Texas were key to the Mountaineers snatching a win from the Longhorns’ grasp. After Darius Hill swatted a single to right, Marcus Inman took a pitch from Kameron Fields deep to left, scoring Hill and tying up the game at 8-8. New pitcher Cole Quintanilla didn’t help the situation, as his balk which put a runner on third with just one out, and followed that up by surrendering the winning run on a bunt by TJ Lake.

The unfortunate ending was extremely similar to Friday’s game, in which the score was knotted at 2-2 heading into the ninth, but a homer given up by Matteo Bocchi resulted in the 3-2 Texas loss.

Despite this difficult stretch of six straight losses, the team continues to be optimistic.

“We feel like we’re going to turn a corner soon, and everyone can feel it,” Zubia said. “We just have to keep on doing our job everyday and it is going to turn soon.”

With his team facing an excellent southpaw in Jackson Wolf, Texas head coach David Pierce started a lineup of all righties, with the exception of freshman Eric Kennedy.

The decision had its positives and negatives: seniors Tate Shaw and Duke Ellis didn’t see action until the late innings, replaced in the starting lineup by inexperienced freshmen Bryce Reagan and Peter Geib. The righties did their job, though, as Wolf was knocked out of the game after four innings.

But UT’s pitching wasn’t stellar either, as Pierce was forced to go to his bullpen after starter Blair Henley allowed six runs. Henley was tasked with the difficult duty of keeping speedy sluggers Brandon White and Tevin Tucker at bay. The task seemed too great for any Texas pitcher to accomplish as the two combined for five hits, three runs and two RBI. In addition, White ran down multiple deep fly balls, eliminating the Longhorns’ chances to produce extra-base hits. While the Mountaineers clearly came with their bats, Texas did as well, and it was their offense which kept them in such a tight game.

The Texas offense, which had been strong in previous starts by Henley, fared well again Saturday. Led by senior Masen Hibbeler, Texas knocked 12 hits, two of them homers. Ryan Reynolds was 2-for-5 with a team-high three RBI.

“He is definitely a guy you want at the top of the order, a guy that is creating and driving the baseball,” Pierce said of Hibbeler. “I like what I’ve seen so far.”

In the third inning, Zubia hit a sharp grounder to third and advanced on a throwing error which, also brought home Austin Todd. Zubialater scored on a sacrifice fly by Shaw.

Despite losing the series to the Mountaineers, the Longhorns will return to Disch-Falk Field at noon Sunday to take on West Virginia one more time and try to break their losing streak.

Ty Madden will make the start for the ‘Horns and try to finish off the series with a win. Madden is 3-1 with 27 strikeouts in 2019. He recently pitched a solid inning against Texas State, striking out one while only allowing one batter to reach base.

Following that, Texas will travel to Corboys Christi for a 6:30 game Tuesday at Texas A&M Corpus-Christi..

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