It has been an up and down season for Augie Garrido and the Texas baseball team. Texas has struggled to find consistent play out of each ballplayer night in and night out, but Garrido continues to hope that each victory will change the competitive attitude in his players and cause something to click in their heads.
“We’ve played with an enormous amount of self-inflicted pressure,” Garrido said. “We’ve taken on the typical symbols that crush a player’s confidence. Playing with the scoreboard.”
Texas has battled all season trying to score runs and garner quality at-bats. Garrido doesn’t want his players to focus on getting hits or his players playing for themselves. “Batting average has been the biggest demon. The fact that it comes up on that giant screen. It’s .125 or .150—they see it and it’s directly attached to their ego. And we haven’t been able to sell them man for man on quality at-bats, which is what teams that are really consistent buy into.”
On Saturday, the Texas baseball team bought into Garrido’s philosophy and churned out quality at-bats in a 6-3 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats and evened the series…[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]
Texas took the lead early in the bottom of first inning and never looked back. Brooks Marlow led off the game with a single to left. Taylor Stell attempted to bunt Marlow over to second, but an error by the Kansas State first baseman allowed Marlow to advance to third and Stell to reach base safely. Mark Payton then grounded out to second, but scored Marlow giving Texas a 1-0 lead. Payton then stole third base and C.J Hinojosa garnered a base hit up the middle that allowed Stell to come home—2-0 Texas.
The Texas batters finally provided the run support for their fellow Texas pitchers—who are second in Big 12 Conference games with a 2.54 ERA.
Texas extended their lead in the third inning after Payton drew a walk and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Two errors by Kansas State followed on the next at-bat that allowed Texas to score another run—an error by the third baseman allowed Hinojosa to reach base safety and then another error by the first baseman allowed Hinojosa to advance to second and Mark Payton to score—3-0 Texas.
Jacobs Felts then drew a walk on the next at-bat. With runners on first and second, Erich Weiss singled up the middle and allowed Hinojosa to score an unearned run—4-0 Texas.
Brooks Marlow made a stellar defensive play in the fourth inning when he dove on a hard hit ball and assisted in a putout at first.
Texas went up 5-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning after a Madison Carter triple—his first of the season. Another error by the Kansas State first baseman allowed Carter to score.
Kansas State got to Dillon Peters in the fifth inning when Lance Miles hit a leadoff single to left, followed by Ross Kivett’s base hit to shallow center to move the runner over. A fielder’s choice by Tanner Witt left runners on first and third with one out. Dillon Peters walked the next batter, before Jared King hit a two-run double to center field. Peters did well to settle down after the rocky start to the inning and got out of a bases-loaded jam to end the top half of the fifth—5-2 Texas.
Texas scored one more run in the seventh inning. Payton got a base hit, Hinojosa walked. Payton was then caught stealing, but another error by the Kansas State first baseman and a single by Jacob Felts allowed Hinojosa to advance to third base. With runners on first and third, Erich Weiss hit a two-out, RBI-double to right and scored Hinojosa. Texas looked to extend the lead even further, but pinch hitter Jeremy Montalbano hit a fly out to center with the bases loaded to end the inning.
The Wildcats managed to score their third run in the eighth inning after Ross Kivett hit a deep fly ball to left that allowed the runner to tag from third—6-3 Texas.
Peters had several innings where he was faced with runners in scoring position, but he did well to settle down and focus on delivering each pitch for a strike.
“I had to fight through some things, but you’re still expected to keep grinding,” Peters said. “I think they only hit one hard ball off me today, but you got to do what have to do and I wanted to get the team back to the dugout as quickly as I could.”
Dillon Peters (5-3) gave up two earned runs on seven hits and a walk in five and one-third innings pitched, while striking out seven Wildcats to get his fifth win of the season. Peters also hit two batters.
Ty Marlow was credited with the save—his second of the season—after coming on in relief for Texas in the eighth inning. Marlow pitched two innings and allowed one hit and struck out two batters.
Kansas State’s Matt Wivinis recorded the loss after giving up four runs (one earned) on three hits and two walks over two and two-thirds innings pitched.
Kansas State finished the game with five errors, their largest of the season.
Jacob Felts and Erich Weiss each garnered a two-hit game to lead the Longhorn batters, while Mark Payton has extended his streak and reached base safely in 34 games.
Texas ended the game with nine hits, six runs and one error. Kansas State ended the game with 10 hits, three runs and five errors.
Texas returns to action on Sunday versus Kansas State at 1 p.m. at UFCU Disch-Falk Field and will look to win their first Big 12 series this season. RHP Nathan Thornhill (2-5, 2.54) is expected to pitch for the Longhorns.
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