Texas Sweeps Doubleheader 5-0, 5-0; Sunday Open Thread

Texas soundly beat Minnesota twice more on Saturday. The Golden Gophers kept things close through the early innings in both games, but Texas rallies in the 7th (game one) and 8th (game two) sealed the deal both times. Josh Sawyer and Chad Hollingsworth both made solid starts (a combined 11.1 IP, 5 H, 9 K, 3 BB, 0 ER) and the bullpen saw good action from Connor Mayes, Kirby Bellow, Kyle Johnston and Ty Culbreth (6.2 IP, 4 H, 0 ER).

It's obviously way too early to be able to say whether the Texas offense is the real deal, but these numbers are comforting:

2014 first 8 games: .266 BA, 5 runs per game, 2 HR.

2015 first 8 games: .310 BA, 6.25 runs per game, 4 HR.

It's comparing apples to oranges, but Rice was clearly a better opponent than the Cal team Texas faced to open 2014 and Stanford in 2014 was better than this Minnesota team. Despite the 2014 starting pitching being far better earlier, the Texas pitching staff as a whole has put up nearly identical numbers through 8 games:

2014 first 8 games: 21 ER in 70 innings (2.7 ERA).

2015 first 8 games: 21 ER in 71 innings (2.66 ERA).

Anyhow, Texas will try to make it six straight wins at 1 PM today. Kacy Clemens looks to continue the run of strong starts and show he deserves consideration for the Sunday starting slot. This'll be your open thread.

Hook 'em.