Fans were treated to fireworks Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. They didn’t come from the mound, though. The matchup between two likely first-round picks was pretty good, but didn’t quite live up to the hype. Instead, a benches-clearing incident in the second inning, following the most inexplicable third base coach’s decision of the season, forced Texas to unexpectedly lean on its depth and created an unusual, testy vibe around the game. Oh, and what was supposed to be a pitcher’s duel turned into a game with 19 runs. You can’t predict baseball.
The No. 4 Longhorns (23-8, 8-2) were okay with that. They love to compete. Sure, their bullpen blew a three-run lead thanks to very shaky control in late-game situations. But the Longhorns keep finding a way. When they were down in the eighth inning to Kansas State (17-12. 2-5), they responded with their best offensive inning of the season to win, 13-6.
“I think there were 29 scouts in the stadium today and it was supposed to be a pitcher’s duel. That’s the beauty of baseball. You never really know. Two great pitchers going out there. Some really great offensive work from really both teams, I thought,” said David Pierce. “We were exceptional throughout the night of sticking with our plan in our approach. A great night for us. Kind of unfortunate what happened there and I guess the second inning, losing three infielders, and it’s part of why we call it a team. We have so many guys that continue to put the work in and didn’t surprise me that all three of them contributed to the offense and played their positions well. So, a tough loss as far as those three. A lesson learned, and then we move forward.”
In the bottom of the second inning of a 1-1 game, the unexpected happened. Mike Antico, with Cam Williams standing on second base after his leadoff double, hit a sinking liner into center field with two outs. The outfielder’s diving attempt came up short, and Antico hit the jets. Surprisingly, as he sprinted into third, he saw Pierce waving him home. What he didn’t see is the relay throw finding an infielder in shallow center field around the same time he touched the bag. The throw in arrived as Antico was about halfway down the line.“
Yeah, it was probably a bad read on my part,” responded Pierce about sending Antico. “I felt like they were going to have to throw him out but the situation was a little bit different. I really should have held up, but Mike’s really fast and I thought if they threw the ball offline at all, he would be safe and they made the play. And we’ll test guys a lot and if they come up and make plays, sometimes it’s gonna look like a really dumb move because we got thrown out by 10 feet. But I think our percentages have been really good.”
With the catcher waiting for him in the right-handed batter’s box, Antico awkwardly ran into him, which immediately resulted in Chris Ceballos standing over Antico lying on the turf. As the umpire tried to separate the two players, Cam Williams approached and made contact with Ceballos in defense of his player. Then, the benches cleared…
READ THE REST OF OUR POSTGAME COVERAGE AND DISCUSS TEXAS BASEBALL INSIDE THE 40 ACRES
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