“Baseball happens. Big innings happen against us and for us.”
The astute observation from junior catcher Carson Tinney applied to a disappointing weekend trip to College Station that featured two losses to the Texas A&M Aggies, how the No. 4 Texas Longhorns fell into an early hole against the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islanders, and how head coach Jim Schlossnagle’s team responded to record a 14-7 win at UFCU Disch-Falk Field on Tuesday that included 13 unanswered runs.
“I’m really happy with the way
we responded after the weekend and just came about our business, playing the game to our standard,” Tinney added.
Playing to the Texas standard didn’t happen immediately, however. Schlossnagle admitted that he pushed freshman right-hander Michael Winter too hard in his return from illness in going from pitching one inning on Saturday to making his first career start on Tuesday.
Winter departed without recording an out after allowing three singles and a walk, exiting in favor of senior right-hander Max Grubbs with Texas down 2-0.
“There weren’t too many balls hit hard, but it wasn’t his normal stuff,” Schlossnagle said of Winter. “So we’ll give him a week to kind of catch his catch his breath and we’ll see him back out there. He’s really good pitcher, big, big part of our future.”
Grubbs wasn’t sharp, either, allowing two more run-scoring singles in the first inning as the Longhorns fell into a 5-0 hole before taking their first at bat. Texas managed to get one run back in the first inning, but entered the bottom of the third down 6-1 after stranding three runners over the first two innings.
The rally got underway when Tinney hit a 416-foot solo home run out to left center.
The fourth inning got the Horns even with the Islanders thanks to good approaches at the plate by Texas. Junior third baseman Casey Borba pulled a single through the left side on a full count, junior first baseman Ashton Larson drew a full-count walk, and graduate designated hitter Josh Livingston drove in the inning’s first run with a 2-2 single.
Redshirt senior right fielder Dariyan Pendergrass, in his first start at Texas, recorded his first RBI for the Longhorns with a sacrifice fly.
Tinney and freshman left fielder Anthony Pack Jr. both followed with RBI doubles as Tinney narrowly missed a home run by taking a powerful opposite-field approach after the big pull-side homer.
The relentless approach at the plate continued for Texas in a three-run fifth inning when Livingston drew a full-count walk to capitalize on three straight singles, including a bunt single by Larson. Then Pendergrass put together a strong at bat to record his first hit, an RBI single on a short, compact swing that came after fouling off four pitches.
In the sixth, Livingston drove in another runs on a single and Pendergrass showed off his bat-handling ability by driving in a run on a bunt. Tinney recorded the final two RBI of the frame by shooting a 2-2 single through the right side. Texas left two runners on base in the inning after stealing six bases.
Texas added its final run in the eighth inning on an RBI double by junior center fielder Aiden Robbins as the Longhorns got some length in the bullpen from junior left-hander Kade Bing, who worked 2.2 innings, allowing a solo home run, and junior right-hander Hudson Hamilton, who picked up his second win of the season by pitching 3.1 scoreless innings. Junior right-hander Thomas Burns had a positive inning, striking out two batters, but graduate left-hander Cal Higgins wasn’t able to finish the ninth after allowing a run on three hits.
Tinney finished 3-for-5 with five RBI, but the biggest revelation was Pendergrass, a College of Charleston transfer who joined the program in mid-December to add depth after drawing minimal interest in the portal.
Capable of providing speed on the base paths and good outfield play, an area where the Longhorns have been shaky this season, Pendergrass appeared in five games for Texas before receiving his first at bats, going 1-for-2 with three RBI and a walk, positioning himself for future playing time as the Horns try to manage a lack of depth in the outfield with sophomore Jonah Williams out and Larson playing first base until the return of sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez.
“I think most importantly, he knows who he is, right?“ Schlossnagle said of Pendergrass. ”And so he doesn’t try to be anything different than that. We have some other guys on the team who think they’re one thing, and they’re not, and they need to be something else, and until they start being who they’re supposed to be, then some of the other guys are gonna play.“
The homestand for Texas continues with No. 11 Alabama coming to the Disch this weekend. First pitch on Friday is at 6:30 p.m. Central on SEC Network+ with sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis set to earn the start after moving up in the rotation due to Sunday’s cancellation in College Station.
