Offensive explosion propels Texas to huge 16-3 win over Northwestern

The Texas Longhorns swept Saturday with a 16-3 trouncing of the Northwestern Wildcats at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

Blair Henley started the game for the Horns and continued his great start to the year — he threw 6.0 innings, and allowed just two baserunners to go with four strikeouts. The sophomore has now extended his scoreless innings streak to 12 and has only given up one earned run on the season.

The offense provided more than enough run support for Henley. Texas was first on the board thanks to a passed ball that scored David Hamilton from third. The Longhorns then picked up three more runs in the second — one off of a Hamilton sacrifice fly to bring in Petrinsky, and the remaining two runs from an RBI double off the bat Masen Hibbeler. By the end of the second inning, the score was already 4-0 Texas.

Then, the third inning happened.

With the bases loaded, Duke Ellis notched an RBI sac fly to make it 5-0 Texas. Shortly thereafter, and again with bases loaded, Hamilton and Hibbeler both received their second RBIs of the night by respectively walking and getting hit by a pitch. With the score at 7-0, Northwestern made a pitching change that immediately backfired — a wild pitch scored Fields from third. Just a few moments later, Kody Clemens finally cleared the bases for Texas with an opposite field home run (his second of the day), and increased the Texas lead to a whopping 11-0 with just one out in the third inning.

Northwestern finally notched a scoreless in the fourth, only for Texas to pick it up again in the fifth with an RBI single from Zach Zubia, who later scored off of another wild pitch by Northwestern, and after five, UT led 13-0.

Texas plated the final three runs in the eighth inning, one run from a Hibbeler sac fly to center field, and two more from a Zubia fielder’s choice and subsequent error from Northwestern. The visiting Wildcats were able to add one run off of Parker Joe Robinson in the seventh and two runs off Bryce Verplank in the ninth, but it wasn’t nearly enough to overcome Texas on a day that was dominated by the UT bats.

In all, Texas was able to manage sixteen runs off of 10 hits, 11 walks, and four hit by pitches. For those counting at home, that’s a whopping twenty-five (!!) baserunners on the day for the ‘Horns. In a game in which the final score more closely resembled a Texas football game in the Charlie Strong era, it capped off what was a great day to be a Longhorn fan. (Speaking of fans: tonight’s game MVP goes to this man doing his part deep into a blowout while looking like a David Ash/David Komie hybrid).

The series finale will be played tomorrow afternoon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, with Matteo Bocchi announced as making his first start for Texas. You can catch the game on Longhorn Network at 1 p.m. CT.