Texas Takes On Houston Part Two

Texas baseball beat Houston 4-2 yesterday as you may have heard. The Horns were largely in control from the moment Mark Payton hit a two-run home run to extend his reached base streak to an incredible 100 games. Houston scored a pair of runs on a solid single, a bloop single following a squeezed 1-2 pitch, a single that hit the bag and a 1-6-3 double play.

Texas pounded out 11 hits against Houston pitching and could have easily had more than the four runs they scored. Beating Houston the first time is nice but just ask LSU whether a first win makes winning a clinching game any easier. Houston is the type of team that just hangs around and hangs around and all of a sudden that lead disappears.

The Horns beat Jake Lamoine for the second time yesterday and now they'll have to beat Aaron Garza. Garza is 9-4 on the year with a 2.67 ERA. The Horns will have to put the ball in play against Garza because he won't be walking anybody (10 BB in 104.1 IP!). On the positive side, Houston threw ace reliever Tyler Ford for 43 pitches on Friday, though if their usage of Jared Robinson last weekend is any indication this doesn't mean we won't see Ford again today or tomorrow.

Finalizing the good news yesterday was the MLB draft. Redshirt sophomore John Curtiss went in the 6th round to the Twins, Mark Payton went in the 7th round to the Yankees and Dillon Peters went in the 10th round to the Marlins. And that was it. No Parker French, no Lukas Schiraldi, no Michael Cantu, etc. Some of the juniors, especially Peters and French, may still head to the pros, but it seems like less of a sure thing than it did on Friday morning. Suddenly the 2015 Horns are looking salty.

Texas is just one more day from Omaha and playing the best baseball they have all season. If Texas can get one more game of solid pitching and offensive production then they should be Omaha-bound.

First pitch is at 1 PM. Parker French is on the mound for real this time. Game is on ESPN and this will be your open thread.

Hook 'em!