Johnson dominant as UT shuts out Cal Poly

On Tuesday night, Texas exploded for 20 runs and 24 hits in a hammering of Houston Christian. Three days later, fans at UFCU Disch-Falk Field were instead treated to a pitchers’ duel.

Lebarron Johnson Jr. looked the part of a Friday starter and No. 16 Texas recorded a 2-0 win in its first game ever against Cal Poly. The Longhorns are 4-1 this season.

While giving a scouting report for the Mustangs earlier in the week, Texas coach David Pierce noted that the “Friday night and Saturday night (starting pitchers) are really good. I think those two guys are the strength of their team.”

Jakob Wright lived up to the billing Friday.

The sophomore left-hander didn’t allow a baserunner until the third inning. Over a start that lasted 51⁄3 innings, he gave up three hits, issued four walks and struck out seven batters. The Longhorns scored their lone run against him when Dee Kennedy walked in the fifth and then scooted around the bases on a balk, a wild pitch and an infield single.

But as good as Wright was, Johnson was even better. He walked two batters and was tagged for two hits over eight shutout innings. Only one Mustang advanced past second base. Johnson’s 100th and final pitch was used to register his eighth strikeout and end the eighth inning.

This was Johnson’s second appearance as UT’s Friday starter. In last week’s season-opening win over San Diego, he pitched five innings of tworun, five-hit baseball. He said Friday night that he wanted to work on keeping his pitch count down against Cal Poly since he needed 76 pitches to get the job done last week.

“My pitch count was pretty high going five innings” against San Diego, Johnson said. “I just wanted to go deeper into the game, give my team a chance.”

Texas added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth and entered the final frame with a two-run edge. Pierce said that “no thoughts” were given to sending Johnson out for the ninth inning.

“We were really contemplating if we were going to send him in the eighth,” Pierce said. “If he had any traffic, he was going to come out in the eighth.”

Texas turned to Gage Boehm to close out the game. The San Jacinto College transfer and graduate of nearby Hutto High School allowed a one-out hit in the ninth inning but still secured the first save of the Longhorns’ season.

This was UT’s first shutout since blanking Abilene Christian in a 2023 game that was called after seven innings. Texas’ last nine-inning shutout was recorded at the 2022 Big 12 Tournament.

MIKALA COMPTON/AMERICAN-STATESMAN Texas pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr., seen in the Longhorns’ victory over San Diego on Feb. 16, earned his first win of the season Friday night against Cal Poly.