Texas Beats Houston 3-2; Sunday Open Thread

Parker French was perhaps not dominant, but he was close as her scattered seven hits over seven innings and allowed only one run as Texas relied on pitching for the second straight day, beating Houston 3-2. The bullpen and defense just about blew it for him, as Nathan Thornhill was forced to come on with two on and two out in the top of the ninth to get the final out of the game.

While the win is nice, and getting wins in games like yesterday and in Friday's 2-0 victory over Rice marks a general change in the "it" factor as compared to last year--when such games seemingly always resulted in losses--the offense is still struggling. The Cougars outhit the Longhorns 9-4 yesterday, and Houston's four errors were the difference in the game. Two of Texas' four runs were unearned (although it bears mentioning that Houston's second run, in the ninth inning, was also unearned thanks to an error from third baseman Andy McGuire). There were a couple of bright spots, as C.J. Hinojosa went 2-for-3 and Mark Payton reached base for the 50th straight game with an RBI double. but the fact remains that if Texas is to make the leap from worst to (contending for) first in the Big 12, the bats will have to be more consistent.

Junior righty Lukas Schiraldi takes the hill for Texas today against SHSU's Dirk Masters (not a typo, just that awsome of a name).  I wouldn't have said so before the weekend, but Sam Houston may be the toughest matchup Texas has at MinuteMaid. They have pounded both TCU and Texas Tech so far in the Classic, so Schiraldi will have to be on his game and, again, Texas will probably need more than the five combined runs they've manages against Rice and UH. TexasSports.com says the game is on LHn, but by UVerse guide says otherwise. Right now softball is on LHN despite that also not being listed on the guide, so I'm guessing the game will in fact be on.

This is your open thread. Hook 'em!