Texas Longhorns Baseball – Texas Defeats Prairie View A&M, 6-3
AUSTIN, Texas— Behind Lukas Schiraldi’s career-high eight strikeout performance and an early offensive surge, the No. 19/22 Texas baseball team defeated Prairie View A&M 6-3 Tuesday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
Schiraldi improved to 6-2 on the season, logging six innings while giving up six hits and three runs. It only took four innings for Schiraldi to surpass his career-high of five strikeouts, which he set during Texas’ win over Texas State on March 25.
The Longhorns (33-13) had six hits and drew eight walks while using productive outs to establish early momentum.
Ben Johnson and C.J Hinojosa led the team with two hits each. Johnson scored two of Texas’ runs and had three stolen bases during the game, the most by a Longhorn since Brandon Loy had three versus UTSA on March 8, 2011.
After Schiraldi struck out the side in the first inning, Johnson’s double to left center got the Longhorn offense going, and he scored on Tres Barrera’s RBI groundout.
Texas got another run on the board in the second inning as Colin Shaw, who got on base by drawing a walk, scored on Madison Carter’s squeeze bunt.
In the third inning, the Longhorns loaded the bases on three walks and C.J Hinojosa hit a two-run double to make it 4-0. Kacy Clemens’ RBI groundout scored Tres Barrera and gave Texas a 5-0 lead.
Schiraldi’s lone slip up came in the sixth, when the Panthers put together a two-out rally and loaded the bases on two singles and a walk. Jeff Sealy’s triple to right center field cleared the bases, cutting the Longhorns’ advantage to two.
Texas, though, got solid outings from Ty Culbreth, Morgan Cooper and John Curitss in relief. The three combined to allow just two hits in three scoreless innings. Culbreth had two strikeouts while Cooper and Curtiss had one apiece as the Longhorns matched a season-high with 12 as a team.
The Longhorns added an insurance run in the eighth inning. Alex Silver got on base after a Prairie View A&M fielding error and Carter’s sacrifice bunt allowed him to advance to third. Brooks Marlow’s followed with an RBI single up the middle, increasing the Texas lead to 6-3.
The Longhorns have now won 15 their last 16 Tuesday matchups dating back to last season and lead the all-time series against the Panthers, 9-0.
Prairie View A&M’s Pedro Maldonado (1-3) took the loss after allowing five runs off one hit and six walks in two innings. The Panthers fell to 18-25 with the loss.
Texas returns to conference play this weekend as it hits the road for a three-game series at West Virginia. The Longhorns and Mountaineers meet at 5 p.m. Friday, 3 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday.
