Longhorns Baseball – Texas Offense Stymied by TCU as Horns Swept by Frogs

Texas had trouble getting on base Thursday. Once the Longhorns put people on base Friday and Saturday, they had trouble moving them around. And all week long against TCU, they had trouble scoring.

In three games, Texas scored only one run. And, for the first time since 1994, the Longhorns were swept by the Horned Frogs in a three-game series. It marked the first Texas, who has hitting .302 as a team over its previous 17 games entering the series, was ever swept by TCU in Austin.

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In Thursday’s series opener, Frogs ace Brandon Finnegan fanned 11 and scattered four hits over eight scoreless innings, retiring 16 of the last 17 batters he faced. Finnegan, a likely first-round pick in this year’s MLB Draft, got better as the game went along. He held the Longhorns hitless over his last five innings before Riley Ferrell retired the side in the ninth, helping TCU hand Texas a 3-0 loss.

“He pitched like a Major Leaguer,” Longhorns head coach Augie Garrido said. “I don’t think that our players did anything bad or did anything to be blamed about. We got beat by a guy who is really, really good and had a really, really good night, and turned in a championship performance.”

Texas had plenty of chances to score over the next two games. The Longhorns put multiple runners on base in the first, fourth, seventh and eighth innings of Friday’s 2-0 loss and collectively went 0-for-9 with seven strikeouts in those situations.

C.J Hinojosa hit a leadoff single in the seventh inning Friday before Kacy Clemens drew a walk to put runners on first and second with nobody out for pinch-hitter Jacob Felts. After fouling off a pair of sacrifice bunt attempts, Felts struck out looking. Gurwitz also struck out and Brooks Marlow flew out to end the inning.

The Longhorns also put men on first and second base with nobody out in the eighth. Once again, a strikeout helped kill a rally as freshman catcher Tres Barrera went down looking. After Collin Shaw flew out, Ferrell entered the game to face Hinojosa, who lined a 2-2 pitch into the glove of a diving Garrett Crain at second base. Another opportunity wasted.

Friday’s loss marked the first time since a doubleheader against NC State on Mar. 15, 2004, that Texas was shut out in consecutive contests.

“That was the difference,” Garrido said of Hinojosa’s at-bat. “We failed to execute and get our runners into scoring position. We missed three bunts to get them over. We failed every time we had a chance with baserunners on to get them over, so the result is no runs.”

TCU head coach Jim Schlossnagle coached Hinojosa when he coached the collegiate Team USA squad. And he said after Friday’s game that the only other person he wouldn’t rather see at the plate with the game on the line was Mark Payton, who has now reached base in a NCAA-best 80 consecutive games.

Sure enough, Payton stepped to the plate with the game on the line in Saturday’s series finale.

Trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Texas had the tying run in scoring position after a wild pitch allowed Brooks Marlow to advance to second base. With one out, left-hander Travis Evans was brought out of the TCU bullpen to face Payton and struck him out looking by painting the outside corner with a 2-2 fastball.

That was the only batter Evans faced. Tres Barrera lined the first pitch he saw from Alex Young, who was originally scheduled to start Saturday, but right to third base. Once again, the Longhorns squandered an opportunity to score in a big spot.

But it wasn’t the last time they did it. One last time, in the bottom of the ninth, Texas gave itself a chance to avoid getting swept. Collin Shaw drew a leadoff walk from Ferrell, pitching for a third straight day, before back-to-back one-out singles by Gurwitz and Clemens.

Then, Andy McGuire grounded into a game-ending, sweep-clinching 4-6-3 double play. Game over. Texas loses, 3-1. Series over.

Texas faces UT-Pan American on Tuesday in its next game, and needs to regroup quickly. The Longhorns take on first-place Oklahoma State in a three-game series at Disch-Falk Field next week.

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