Texas holds off Arkansas’ rally
Early 8-0 lead seals 3-0 start for UT’s Madden
Texas coach David Pierce said his players were “ticked off ” on Friday night following a narrow loss to LSU at Minute Maid Park.
The Longhorns looked like it in the first two innings against No. 9 Arkansas, in jumping to a big lead and then holding on tight for an 8-7 victory in the nightcap of the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic.
“We did a really good job of keeping our composure,” UT first baseman Zach Zubia said.
The game started an hour and a half after its scheduled 7:05 p.m. first pitch because of prolonged earlier contests, and didn’t wrap up until 11:37 p.m. before a thinned-out but hearty crowd. UT (10-1) jumped to an 8-0 lead in its first two at-bats and then Arkansas (7-2) chipped away at the large deficit, coming up a run shy after scoring two in the ninth off reliever Andre Duplantier II.
“They did a good job of working themselves back into the game, and making it a thriller at the end,” Pierce said of the Razorbacks.
Ty Madden (3-0) earned the victory for the Longhorns, allowing three runs over six innings while striking out seven.
“Never in doubt,” Madden said with a grin. “Never in doubt.”
Zubia crushed a 2-run home run on a 2-2 slider in the bottom of the second just beneath the railroad tracks in left field.
“I just put a good swing on it,” Zubia said. “I got beat up by sliders on Friday (against LSU), so I worked really hard (on Saturday) on focusing on hitting an off-speed pitch, and it paid off.”
LSU defeated UT 4-3 in the teams’ classic opener, prompting Pierce’s “ticked off ” remark.
“I love this team,” Pierce said late Saturday as the clock closed in on midnight. “It’s a group that’s playing for the right reasons.”
UT will face Missouri at 3 p.m. Sunday in the teams’ final game in the classic. Arkansas plays Baylor at 7 p.m. to cap the classic’s 20th get-together.
LSU’s Jaden Hill looked at home on a big-league mound this weekend in the annual college baseball gettogether in Minute Maid Park, prompting Texas coach David Pierce to kiddingly question Hill’s current home.
“I don’t know why Hill is in college, to be honest with you,” Pierce said with a slight grin after the tall righthander slammed the door shut over three innings in the teams’ opener of the Shriners Hospitals for Children College Classic on Friday.
Hill’s dynamic assortment of pitches — topped by a 98-mph fastball — has turned the most heads in Minute Maid through two days of the classic, both in the batter’s box and in the stands. To Pierce’s point, if Hill (6-4, 233) was in his second season of professional baseball, he’d also be turning heads in the minor leagues based on unbounded potential.
“Not only did he throw the fastball, he was able to hit (the strike zone) with his breaking ball,” Pierce said of Hill’s hitless outing against 10 UT batters in LSU’s 4-3 opening victory. “And when you’re seeing that kind of velocity, you’re going to chase some breaking balls, because you’ve got to release early to get to the fastball.”
With Hill in the dugout on Saturday following his Friday night showcase, the No. 14 Tigers fell to Baylor 6-4.
Missouri defeated Oklahoma 8-7 in 10 innings in Saturday’s first game. Texas and Arkansas played late Saturday night. The 20th classic wraps up on Sunday with OU vs. LSU at 11 a.m., Texas vs. Missouri at 3 p.m. and Baylor vs. Arkansas at 7 p.m.
Starter Evan Godwin struck out eight Tigers and allowed three runs over 5 2/3 innings. Four relievers spelled him with LSU (7-4) adding a lone run the rest of the way. The Bears scored four runs in the seventh in the comeback victory, an inning sparked by second baseman Ricky Martinez’s two-run home run off Tigers reliever Brandon Kaminer.
Meantime Hill’s outing was all the more intriguing to pro scouts based on where he was at this time last year as a true freshman at LSU: sidelined with an elbow injury.
In 2019 he had earned a spot in the Tigers’ starting rotation — not easy to do in one of the nation’s most storied programs — and pitched the first two weekends.