Texas Beats OK State; Game 2 Open Thread

In the world of small sample sizes, one can be forgiven for turning the optimism faucet to at least a trickle based on Texas' last few baseball games. The Longhorns' ace, Parker French, returned from a minor injury last night but was not the unstoppable force he has been much of the year. Earlier in the season that might've been a death knell for this team, and that may be the case again in the future; we're not claiming the offensive woes are behind us. But for the first four innings last night, Texas played like a team that knows how to score runs, leading to an 8-5 win.

Freshman Jeremy Montalbano had the highlight of the evening, with a three-run dinger in the third that plated Mark Payton (who hit a double) and Erich Weiss (who hit a single), which meant Texas strung together three real, live hits, including a homerun--like a real, live baseball team!

OK, that tone was not necessary. We're stepping back for a moment. In all seriousness, Montalbano gives Texas fans a lot to be excited about going forward; he clearly has some serious pop in his bat, as this was already his second homer without having been a regular player all year. Fellow freshmen also did the bulk of the work last night, with CJ Hinojosa logging three RBI of his own, and freshman lefty Travis Duke picking up his first win in relief after bailing out French with three scoreless innings. So the future may be kind of bright, if this level of performance continues. Stay tuned.

Their next chance to continue the March of the Freshmen is at 7:00 tonight, as the Horns will try to get their first conference win of the year. This is your open thread. Hook 'em!