Shugart, Petrinsky lead Texas baseball past Texas Southern in NCAAs

By Steve Habel, Senior Contributing Writer

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas baseball coach David Pierce lightheartedly said Thursday that the best thing that could happen for his Longhorns on Friday in their opening game of the NCAA Austin Regional against Texas Southern was for starting pitcher Chase Shugart to throw a complete-game shutout.

Shugart (5-3) did his best to live up to Pierce’s expectations, hurling six innings of scoreless, four-hit baseball while the Texas offense feasted on the mistakes of his Texas Southern counterparts as the Longhorns rolled to an easy-as-it-sounds 10-0 win over the Tigers before a sold-out crowd of 6,914 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

The Longhorns’ win set up the winners’ bracket matchup most fans hoped for when this regional field was announced: Texas will face Texas A&M, a 10-3 winner over outmanned Indiana in Friday’s first game. [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]That game — and the high-octane atmosphere that will surround the teams at the 6 p.m. contest Saturday — will not be for the faint of heart.

Shugart was efficient and nearly flawless, challenging the Texas Southern offense while commanding three pitches and working around the strike zone. His quick-working style kept the Longhorns defenders involved and on their toes, and they responded by making a series of sterling plays in the field.

“I wanted to attack the zone and pitch with a controlled emotion, and allow my defense to do the work behind me,” said Shugart, who struck out five. His workload of 69 pitches would allow him to return Sunday and/or Monday if needed.

Reliever Matteo Bocchi was almost as good as Shugart, throwing the final three innings, allowing one hit while striking out six, including the final four batters he faced.

“It was great efficiency from our pitchers and a great job of attacking the zone,” Pierce said. “(I am) proud of the way we came out and played. We were ready. To execute the way we did showed that we were focused and prepared to play well.”

How dominant was Texas’ pitching? Neither pitcher issued a walk, and Texas Southern never got a runner to third base.

“It wasn’t one of our better nights but we had a huge giant in front of us in Texas,” Texas Southern coach Michael Robertson said. “Controlling the early innings was a key for us and we didn’t do that. Shugart was really good. He was the difference.”

Catcher DJ Petrinsky pounded a three-run home run as part of a two-hit, two-run, two-walk, four-RBI performance, first baseman Jake McKenzie had two hits and center fielder Tate Shaw added a hit, three walks and scored three times for the Longhorns’ 11-hit attack.

Texas (38-20) took the lead in the bottom of the second as Petrinsky walked, advanced to third on a single by Shaw and scored on an errant pickoff throw by Texas Southern starter Peyton Schneider that also allowed Shaw to move to second.

After McKenzie lined a single to left field that sent Shaw to third, shortstop David Hamilton beat out a safety squeeze bunt that plated Shaw and staked the Longhorns to 2-0 advantage.

The Longhorns busted open the game in the third as Petrinsky hit a towering three-run home run over the left-field fence to drive home designated hitter Zach Zubia and left fielder Masen Hibbeler. Shaw then walked, reached second on an error and scooted across the plate on an RBI single by right fielder Duke Ellis, pushing the Texas lead to 6-0.

The lead grew to 9-0 in the fifth when second baseman Kody Clemens blooped a bases-loaded single to centerfield that scored McKenzie and Shaw. Hamilton and Clemens then pulled off the double steal, with Hamilton going home from third when Clemens broke for second base in a play that would have made former Texas coaches Cliff Gustafson and Augie Garrido smile.

Petrinsky singled home Hibbeler in the eighth to end the scoring.

In the first game, the Aggies scored seven runs in the top of the fourth inning — all with two outs — and were never challenged down the stretch. Texas A&M got six innings of one-run, one-hit pitching from left-hander John Doxakis in the win.

Doxakis had pitched eight innings of no-hit baseball eight days before in a 4-2 win over Auburn in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.

Pierce said he expects the atmosphere for Saturday’s Texas-Texas A&M showdown to be electric.

“You put those two teams together in a regional and it has to be exciting,” he said. “We will try to maintain our ritual and our routine and go about our business as usual.”

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