‘They know they don’t have to play perfect. We had some imperfections in the first inning, but we didn’t come apart.’

day’s doubleheader with Hawaii and use the versatile Curtiss out of the bullpen to snuff out late rallies.

“We’re hoping he’ll be the closer,” Garrido said of Curtiss. “Lukas is a good pitcher, but he needs to settle down. I think his legacy (as the son of All-America Calvin Schiraldi) is getting to him a little bit. We’re taking it cautiously with John, but he’s very smooth off the mound.”

The Texas baseball team still can’t hit a whole lot, a malady that could haunt it down the road, but the way it pitches and fields, hitting almost seems like a bonus. Remember, UT swept the Houston College Classic by scoring eight runs in three games. You can do that if you only allow four.

Texas flashed some serious leather Friday night as every infielder made a spectacular defensive stop. Third baseman Andy McGuire overran a slow grounder and made a backhand stop with his bare hand for an out in the sixth and speared a scorching line drive in the seventh. In between, shortstop C.J Hinojosa went deep in the hole for a ball off Trevor Podratz’s bat and gunned out the Warrior.

“That was huge,” French said. “I thought I had walked the guy, but then C.J makes a great play. And Kacy’s a vacuum at first. He’s got such good range. In the seventh inning, it was diving play, diving play. They kept me in the game.”

With only a week left before the start of Big 12 play, the defense figures to keep Texas in a lot of games. So will its deep pitching, especially with a new closer auditioning every week.

“Hey, whatever capacity they need me,” Curtiss said, “so be it.” Contact Kirk Bohls at 512-445-3772. Twitter: @kbohls