There was one series in particular at the beginning of the season that I couldn’t wait to come; and that was the series against the University of Texas. I believe they were rated number 3 in the nation at the time that we played them. They showed all the signs of a top three team in the country; poise, confidence, maturity, the ability to overcome adversity, and most of all the belief that they were going to win on any given night. Those different qualities were very apparent throughout the weekend.

 Friday night we were up against one of the best collegiate pitchers in the nation, Taylor Jungmann. He was by far the best pitcher I have ever faced, and possibly one of the best pitchers we will see all season. We scratched acorss one run in the first inning, but didn’t manage another throughout the next nine innings. Jungmann ended up striking out 17 while only walking one. We sent Jared Hippen to the mound and he matched Jungmann pitch for pitch throughout the game. Hippen had command of all three of his pitches, pitching to both sides of the plate very effectively, going 8 1/3, with 8 strike outs. I would venture to guess that that was Hippens best game he has pitched. He kept us in the game, shutting the door on any possible big innings for the Longhorns. The Longhorns only two runs came on two solo homeruns; one in the 8th, and the game winning walk-off in the 10th. We played pitch for pitch against the number 3 team in the nation and lost in extra innings, 2-1.

The Friday night game was a tough game to swollow; yet another game that we felt we played good enough to win, but came out on the wrong end. With a double header on Saturday, we knew that we could play with them it was now just a matter of executing and limiting our mistakes. The first game was a 7 inning game so we knew we had to jump on them early. We scored one run in the first, just like on Friday night, and again did not manage to score the rest of the game. Phil Schriber threw 5 1/3 innings, keeping us in the game even though he didn’t have his best stuff on that outing. We had two errors in the game, and when you play the number three team in the nation you can not afford to give them extra outs. The Longhorns won the game 3-1. This was another game that we were one or two clutch hits away from being on the winning side of the game.

The second game of the doubleheader was just like the first two games of the series….Close. We jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the top of the first, but the Longhorns got one back in the bottom half and three more in the bottom half of the second. We were yet again one or two clutch hits away from beating the number three team in the nation. The thing that really hurt us the most were the 3 errors that we committed. When playing top teams in the nation, you can maybe get away with one error or one inning that you leave a few runners on base, but when you can not find away to get one or two runners across in the middle innings when you have the chance to, or you make two or three errors,you will look back on those innings after the game and say “what if…” The final score of the game was 5-2.

The last game of the series we were outmatched from the very start. Texas scored a run in every inning except the 6th, with the final score ending up 18-0. If we could take away anything from that game it would be how Texas never let up after they got the lead; something that we could have done in the first three games of the series which could have made the outcome different in those games. One characteristic that is true of all “good” teams is the ability to win the one or two run games, along with never letting the gas up. I have no doubt in my mind that we will learn alot from these games against a highly regarded program like Texas, and we will be better from it.

I promised a few of the Longhorn fans that I would give them a “shout-out” in my next blog, so here it is guys!!! Myself and Ryan Durant would like to thank you guys for being great fans of the game and also for keeping things fun and entertaining throughout the weekend. I hope you guys enjoyed the signed BigTen baseball and the piece of gum that as tossed over the fence. I’d like to thank you guys for the big bag of bubble gum that you gave my brother to give to me, very thoughtful haha! It was nice interacting with you guys inbetween pitches, and inbetween the innings!