No. 18 Texas cruises past A&M Corpus Christi to 10-0 shutout

The No. 18 Longhorns cruised to a 10-0 shoutout of the Texas A&M Corpus Christi Islanders in 8 2/3* innings on Tuesday night in their home opener at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Four Texas hitters had two hits in the win, in which Texas used five pitchers to keep the Islanders off the scoreboard.

“After dropping two in California, it’s always good to come back and get our feet wet and get the W,” sophomore C.J. Hinojosa said. “It was good that we got our first win at home.”

After scoring once in the first and twice in the third inning, the Longhorns put together a five run rally in the fifth to pull away from the Islanders.

“We had two outs nobody on, we get a rally started,” head coach Augie Garrido said. “Several of the hitters had two strikes on them, found a way to get in play and get the rally going. That’s as good as it gets.”

Texas sealed the win with two runs [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] in the eighth when the game was on a 10-run rule. The final run came when sophomore C.J. Hinojosa batted in sophomore Ben Johnson with a sacrifice fly.

On the night, seven of the nine Longhorn batters had hits. Sophomores Brooks Marlow, Jeremy Montalbano, Hinojosa, and senior Mark Payton each had two hit nights.

“They [the Longhorns offense] scored periodically, so they’re closer to grasping the value of inning-by-inning baseball than they were a month ago,” Garrido said.

Hinjosa led the Longhorns at the plate as he went 2-for-4 with a double, a single, and three RBIs. A high fly ball hit in the fifth by Hinojosa which A&M CC shortstop Zack GIbson dropped allow two unearned runs to score for Texas. All of Hinojosa’s RBIs came when he swung at the first pitch.

“I’ve always had that, ‘be aggressive’,” Hinjosa said. “I’ve always been coached be aggressive first pitch. See it. Don’t miss it, you don’t get very many of them, especially on the fastball. So be ready for it, don’t miss it, and have fun with it.”

Senior Mark Payton, who is now 11-for-21 on the season, made his presence felt early. In the top of the first, Texas A&M-CC (2-3) put runners on the corners with one out, when Kyle Danford hit a line drive to center field. Payton made the catch, then threw a strike to home plate to get Jordan Lee, who was tagging from third base. In the bottom half of the first, Payton hit an opposite field triple and came in to score on a single by Marlow.

Defensively, Texas had a chance to give three freshman pitchers time on the mound. Freshman Josh Sawyer earned the win as he pitched 2 2/3 innings with no runs, two hits, and four strikeouts. Fellow freshman Blake Goins (2 1/3 IP) and Jon Malim (1 1/3) each got time on the mound—Goins as the starter, and Malim in relief for Sawyer in the sixth and seventh inning. Sophomore right-handers Chad Hollingsworth (1 1/3 innings) and Travis Duke (1/3) finished up the game for Longhorns.

Head coach Augie Garrido said he felt pleased to to see his pitchers face some adversity —as the islander put runners on base and in scoring position in several innings, only to see the Texas pitchers work their way out of the situations.

“The pitchers had to pitch under more pressure than they have if everything had just been smooth, and evey out would have been on time,” coach Garrido said. “This is not only a pitching staff that… need to pitch this year to get us through everything, but this is the pitching staff that will probably start next year —Goins, Sawyer, and so on. So you’re going to see a lot of them”

With the win Texas improves to 3-2 overall. This past weekend at California Berkley Texas dropped the first two games, but came back to win the final two games and split the four game series. In the team’s three-game win streak, it has allowed just two runs, and on the year, the staff owns a 0.86 ERA. The staff has all had eight pitchers combined for a 17 1/3 scoreless inning streak.

The Longhorns will face another California based team when they welcome the Stanford Cardinal to Disch-Falk this weekend for a three game series. The first game will start at 6 p.m. on Friday.

*The game stopped when Texas had a 10-run lead because the coaches mutually agreed on a 10-run rule prior to the start of the game.
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Question for the fans: What was your favorite play of Texas’ home opener? Sound off below.

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