Bohls: Texas loses big to Texas State, but this is just a blip on the screen for Horns
Texas entered Tuesday’s baseball game in first place in the Big 12 and it left it in an identical position.
That’s probably the extent of the good news for the No. 19 Longhorns, who stumbled badly in an eyesore of a 9-3 loss to a feisty, motivated Texas State team that was witnessed by 7,364 fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
The outcome hardly seemed in doubt from midgame when the Bobcats put up seven runs off some green Longhorns relievers. Three freshmen, including Cameron O'Banan who made his college debut, suffered some meaningful growing pains.
“We got outcompeted by them,” Texas head coach David Pierce said. “They pitched better than us. They got more timely hits than us. They deserved to win the game.”
He was right on all counts.
Texas pitched poorly. The Longhorns struck out 13 times. While no one used the excuse of an extended schedule with five games in five days — including a three-game Kansas State series that the Longhorns won — they sure seemed a bit mentally fatigued if not physically.
That’s the beauty of midweek, nonconference games.
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They don’t count nearly as much as league games, and the stumble shouldn’t obscure what has shaped into a very good team.
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It’s not a great team — not yet anyway — but there doesn’t seem to be a great team in the Big 12. No league team is ranked higher than No. 18 Oklahoma State, and Texas leads the conference with a 6-3 record after sweeping Texas Tech and winning two of three from Kansas State.
A lot of the preseason contenders like Texas Tech and especially College World Series runner-up Oklahoma have stubbed their toes badly but are likely to respond in a big way.
“You see Baylor getting better every weekend,” Pierce said. “You see KU getting better every weekend. And then you still have some monsters in there that we got to play, so you can’t take anybody for granted. TCU can really play, and they have veterans and great experience.”
Not that he’s at all surprised by a league that’s bunched together pretty tightly.
“We won the league in ❜18 and ❜21. And we won it on the last day," Pierce said. "So what we have to do is just keep clear minds, flush this one and get ready for Baylor.”
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This 24-11 Texas team doesn’t have near the heavy lumber of last year’s fence-busters led by Ivan Melendez and Skyler Messinger, but it might have as much or more pitching in ace Lucas Gordon and a solid staff than that club which went 0-2 in Omaha.
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If anything, pitching coach Woody Williams might have more pitchers to work with than Texas has had in awhile. Remember that 2021 Texas team. It reached the CWS, too, and used just six pitchers in five games there.
Games like Monday — when freshman Kobe Minchey got his first start after only one inning of action all year — and Tuesday can only help these young arms. And if Texas gets Tanner Witt and his ace-caliber arm back later this month a year after Tommy John surgery, who knows what kind of run the Longhorns can get on. He’s already faced a few live batters recently and shows promise.
Pierce could have lots of options.
It’s also about peaking at the right time, and Texas has just 21 games left on the schedule, 12 of them at home. On the road, the Longhorns are only 4-7.
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For now it seems like a team that lives a little bit on the margins and needs to mind all its P's and Q's if it’s to advance deep in the postseason. In other words, it needs to bring its A game to maximize its potential. This team doesn't bludgeon opponents like last year's did. Texas has to be more surgical.
But in the estimation of most, Texas and OSU would both host a regional if the playoffs began this week. That would incredibly bolster this team's chances since the Longhorns are their usual formidable selves at the Disch with a 20-4 home record.
The numbers back that up. Texas ranks first in the Big 12 in pitching and is tied for second in defense. The Horns can flash some leather as they did Tuesday with a tremendous play in the hole from shortstop Mitchell Daly and a terrific leaping catch against the wall by left fielder Porter Brown.
The hitting can come and go at times, and the lineup strikes out far too much. Texas State pitchers struck out an eye-popping 13 Longhorns in the game, marking the 11th time this year Texas has suffered double-digit strikeouts.
“That’s always something to work on,” said Daly, who’s stroking the ball better and had two hits, including a solo home run Tuesday. “That’s something we can get better at.”
Dylan Campbell murdered one ball for his seventh homer and, after a very slow start out of the gate, has raised his batting average to .313. He’s always scored runs and stolen bases and fits in perfectly between leadoff stud Eric Kennedy and the soaring Peyton Powell.
Texas' loss will eventually be a blip on the screen
And while the pasting by a Bobcats team that had lost to the Longhorns in San Marcos on Monday and dropped five of their previous seven games doesn’t figure to help Texas’ lofty No. 14 RPI ranking, it shouldn’t be more than a blip in the long run.
Besides, the Bobcats might just jump-start their season anew with this split. Although Steven Trout’s club sits at just 21-13 and is tied for sixth in the Sun Belt, it’s a program with strong pedigree and one that came within three outs of stunning Stanford last year on the road and hosting UConn in a super regional last June. Freshman Chase Mora got three hits Tuesday and has 12 homers in what could be an All-America season at this rate.
Texas, meanwhile, had few highlights.
The second-most lopsided defeat of the year — the Longhorns fell 12-2 to then No. 10 Vanderbilt in that three-game sweep in Arlington to start the season — doesn’t figure in at all in the conference race.
And Texas, which travels to Waco on Friday to face a Baylor team that has struggled for much of the year, has bigger things in mind.
The margin of defeat shouldn’t portend anything ominous because Texas was largely relying on pitchers who had thrown little this season. For that matter, Texas State, too, had used its main throwers on the weekend and relied Tuesday on three of its best relievers including stud closer Triston Dixon, who had combined for one start among them all year.
That doesn’t excuse poor pitching in Pierce’s mind, but he’s aware it’s a journey.
“This is a different team from any team that I’ve had where you have pretty good options that are young and inexperienced, but they can play,” Pierce said. “We’re still a work in progress. But it’s been a good progress.”
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball loses to Texas State, but still leads the Big 12 race
