The No. 4 Texas Longhorns secured a crucial victory to keep pace in the SEC standings, overcoming a five-run first inning by the No. 10 Mississippi State Bulldogs by scoring 10 unanswered runs, including nine in the decisive third inning, for an 11-6 win at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Sunday.
After the bats bailed out redshirt senior left-hander Luke Harrison, the stalwart starter recovered to pitch four scoreless innings, getting the ball to a bullpen that bounced back from its Saturday struggles as
three pitchers combined to allow one run on one hit, capped by freshman right-hander Sam Cozart working around some command issues in the eighth inning to close out the series.
Mississippi State got to Harrison early by working deep into counts, drawing a leadoff, full-count walk, then drawing another full-count walk with one out, and scoring the game’s first run on a single to center field. After the third full-count walk of the inning, center fielder Bryce Chance hit his first home run of the season on a 3-2 fastball from Harrison that was down and in, but perhaps caught too much of the plate.
The 393-foot blast cleared the visitor’s bullpen and was the first home run by Chance in 181 at bats.
After allowing the five runs on two hits and three walks, Harrison struck out the side in the second, worked around a throwing error by redshirt senior third baseman Temo Becerra in the third and a leadoff double by Chance in the fourth before a 1-2-3 inning in the fifth. Harrison finished with nine strikeouts and didn’t issue any walks after the first inning.
When Texas turned to the bullpen, however, junior left-hander Haiden Leffew was met with a leadoff triple on his first pitch before allowing an RBI groundout to sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez. Struggling with his command, Leffew gave up back-t0-back one-out walks as strike throwing has been a problem for the Wake Forest transfer, and head coach Jim Schlossnagle made the call to freshman right-hander Brett Crossland with Texas trying to preserve its 10-6 lead.
Crossland came on ready to field his position, inducing a groundout and recording the out at first himself, briefly lost the strike zone on a four-pitch walk, but recovered by dealing a three-pitch strikeout.
The fastball down and in by Crossland drew the ire of Mississippi State head coach Brian O’Connor, who argued his way into a rare ejection for the former Virginia skipper.
After Crossland retired the side in order in the seventh inning, Cozart made his second appearance of the weekend in the wake of his one-inning save on Friday. In most of Cozart’s appearances this season, he’s made it look easy on the mound, but that wasn’t the case on Sunday — the big North Carolina product was having difficulties throwing his fastball for strikes as Mississippi State drew back-to-back walks to start the inning. Cozart also fell behind 3-0 against the next batter, but was able to get back into the zone to work the count full and then induce a huge double play turned by Rodriguez and junior second baseman Ethan Mendoza. The third out was made more adventurous when Rodriguez had to throw over the runner at second base on a routine ground ball, influencing a low throw that junior first baseman Casey Borba managed to scoop, but only narrowly, not realizing the ball nearly came out of his glove’s webbing until looking down at it.
Cozart got some help from his defense and his coaching staff in the ninth when freshman center fielder Maddox Monsour, in just his third start there as Schlossnagle looked for a defensive upgrade over junior Aiden Robbins, got a good jump on a line drive into left center and made a spectacular diving catch.
Texas recorded the second out when Mendoza was in the perfect position playing at the second base bag to make an easy catch on a line drive that would typically be a base hit.
After stranding 17 baserunners in Saturday’s 7-4 loss, Texas came up with timely hits on Sunday after putting pressure on Mississippi State starter Charlie Foster, a sophomore left-hander who loaded the bases with three straight walks to open the third inning, then hit junior catcher Carson Tinney with a 3-2 breaking ball.
Freshman left fielder Anthony Pack Jr. came through with the first big hit of the game for the Horns, a two-run single pulled to right field. Pack flashed his speed by stealing second, and Mendoza drew a four-pitch walk to load the bases again. Rodriguez delivered a two-run single to right field, Becerra sent an RBI single down the left-field line, and Borba ripped a ball down the third-base line that the Bulldogs infielder couldn’t handle, producing an RBI double. By that point, Texas had scored eight runs and batted around in the inning without recording an out.
In the wake of Borba’s double, the pitching change by Mississippi State paid off with two straight outs before Robbins drove in a run on a single to center.
Robbins added another insurance run in the seventh on an RBI single.
Four Longhorns had multi-hit performance on Sunday with five players recording two RBI as Texas drew nine walks.
Texas plays its final midweek game of the season against UTSA on Tuesday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
