Baseball Takes Series; Tuesday Open Thread

On Friday, the Texas baseball team continued its offense-but-a-rumor ways in a 5-1 loss at the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Toller Boardman was not sharp in his first start in place of the apparently-injured Parker French, and the bats were...well, Texas forgot to wake up bats.

In our eyes, while this may seem dramatic, that made Saturday and Sunday into must-win games; if Texas is to right the ship and have a shot at the postseason, losing a series--or worse, being swept--against the likes of Minnesota would be a huge blow. Luckily, the team responded and took the last two games in the series.

They didn't make it easy on Saturday. After taking a 4-1 lead, they allowed the Gophers back into the game with two in the fifth and one in the sixth. No more scoring for the next three innings led to some free baseball, but pinch hitter Collin Shaw drew a walk to start the tenth.

Jacob Felts and Alex Silver followed with back-to-back singles, plating Shaw and looking to blow the inning open. But Brooks Marlow then grounded into a double play, followed by leadoff hitter Weston Hall grounding out to third to end the inning. Still, the damage was done as Corey Knebel set the Gophers down in his second inning of work, picking up the win.

The weird thing about Saturday was that Texas, whose identity is pitching and defense with very little hitting, pounded out 12 hits but gave up 13. Twilight Zone.

Hall came up big on Sunday with a 3-for-5 performance, and combined with Marlow's 3-for-4 he set the pace for another improved offensive performance.The Longhorns won 6-3; while scoring 5 runs one day and 6 the next doesn't suddenly mean they can hit, it's a lot better than, you know, not doing that. The 'Horns out-hit Minnesota 11-5, and Nathan Thornhill was solid in his six innings.

Tonight's game is at 6:00 on the Longhorn Network, and Chad Hollingsworth is on the bump against Texas State. This is your open thread. Hook 'em!