Texas beats New Orleans 4-3 to complete series sweep

Texas Longhorns baseball (28-15) defeated the New Orleans Privateers (19-21) 4-3 on Sunday afternoon at the Disch to complete the weekend sweep. Texas won 7-1 on Friday night and 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.

Patrick Mathis earned all four of Texas’ RBIs on a day where the ‘Horns had trouble swinging the bat, but capitalized on New Orleans’ mistakes.

Though Texas jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the third on a Mathis RBI groundout, the 'Horns did not have a hit until the fifth inning.

Zane Gurwitz broke the no hitter by smacking a single up the middle. David Hamilton reached first on an error by the second baseman, and Mathis then rocketed a double over the head of the center fielder to score them both home.

New Orleans bounced back with a two out rally in the sixth, notching a walk, double, and then single to make the score 3-2. Starter Kyle Johnston was then replaced by Chase Shugart on the mound. Johnston’s final line on the day: 5.2 inning pitched, four hits, two runs (only one earned due to a Kody Clemens error), two walks, and three strikeouts.

The Privateers were not done inflicting damage on the ‘Horns. In the seventh, a New Orleans one out double scored a runner who had been walked earlier in the inning to knot the score up at three.

Texas ace Nolan Kingham then came on in relief, and got the last two outs of the inning with a pop out and nice 1-6 pickoff.

In the bottom half of the seventh, New Orleans’ starting pitcher quickly lost his stuff and began the inning by plunking consecutive batters (Michael Cantu and Gurwitz). David Hamilton then laid a beauty of a sac bunt to move runners to second and third with one out.

That set the table for Patrick Mathis, who blasted a sac fly to left to earn his fourth RBI on the day to make it 4-3 ‘Horns.

Kingham retired the final six outs with minimal trouble, finishing off the game with a three pitch strikeout to give Texas the W and the sweep.

The Longhorns ended the game with only three hits, but Texas got runners on base in unique ways. The Longhorns stole four bases on the day, and Kacy Clemens walked three times.

A spot in the NCAA tournament is far from set, but Texas made a great case for their resume by taking care of business against a decent New Orleans club.

Texas will face one of its most challenging mid-week opponents of the year on Tuesday when the ‘Horns will meet Louisiana Lafayette in Sugar Land. The Ragin’ Cajuns are 26-14-1 this season and have won eight straight games.

After that, Texas will head to Stillwater to take on a struggling, but dangerous Oklahoma State team.