Texas baseball played a pair of meaningless baseball games this weekend against an alright Lamar team and a pretty mediocre Texas State squad. The Horns lost to Lamar 10-8 in a game that was shortened due to weather and beat Texas State 9-0.
The results are pretty meaningless as both Lamar and Texas State tried to throw as many pitchers as possible and Texas threw three freshmen and two scrubs against Lamar (predictably rough) and three starters, an experienced reliever and a freshman against Texas State (predictably excellent).
There's not a lot that can be taken from a pair of exhibition games though it's nice to see the Horns score runs in one of these for a change. Nevertheless here are some observations:
- The position battles are shaping up quite nicely with freshmen featuring prominently throughout the lineup. Freshman phenom Andy McGuire seems to have 3B down pat, Tres Barrera will likely begin the year at 1B and Brett Boswell may DH as the odd man out. The Horns didn't hit a lot of balls hard on Sunday (the only game that was televised), but McGuire, Barrera and Boswell hit four of the maybe six well struck balls. They went a combined 5-24 for the weekend and their development may be the difference from a conference winning team and another disappointing campaign.
- Judging by just this weekend, the outfield seemed a whole lot more settled than previously thought. Mark Payton's gonna do Mark Payton things. Sophomore Ben Johnson went 5-7 with 3 RBI, 2 walks and a homer, and junior Collin Shaw went 3-8 while making a pretty incredible catch in right field to save a run on Sunday. Taylor Stell may be the odd man out and be forced to fight with Boswell for the DH spot.
Great shot of Collin Shaw's full-extension, diving catch in the 7th inning today pic.twitter.com/6nPzSC4JWc
— Texas Baseball (@Texas_Baseball) September 30, 2013
- Brooks Marlow may hit leadoff for the Horns this year and it may be a good idea. Marlow went 4-8 and could contribute mightily if he can build off his very strong Big 12 season. Hopefully the light came on for him, otherwise Zane Gurwitz could see time at 2B. How good was Marlow's Big 12 year? Well, he hit .250 for the season but it's hard for us to tell you how he did in conference play since TexasSports.com decided to take all stats off its website other than 2013's final stats. It's an outrage! Write your Congressman now that they aren't busy governing! Bring back the stats!
See you in February!