With 3 homers, Texas crushes Abilene Christian

A busy week for Texas baseball began with a blowout Tuesday night. Behind an eight-run outburst in the fifth inning, the Longhorns cruised to an 11-1 rout of Abilene Christian at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.

It was the first of four games Texas (18-11) will play in a five-day stretch. The Longhorns, who are 6-3 and tied for second in Big 12 play, host BYU (1114, 4-8) Thursday through Saturday; the Cougars are tied for last place with Houston.

Texas led Abilene Christian (17-12) 2-1 on Tuesday before blowing the game open in the fifth inning, scoring eight runs on eight hits when 15 Longhorns went to the plate. Jared Thomas and Jalin Flores both homered.

Texas finished with 12 hits and Flores capped a four-hit, five-RBI night with another homer in the eighth inning. But the Longhorns complemented that offense with a couple of defensive highlights.

With Texas nursing a 2-1 lead, ACU's Miller Ladusau led off the fourth inning by looping a fly ball to left field that a charging Porter Brown couldn't catch. The ball scooted past him, but Flores — who had ranged into the outfield from his shortstop position — eventually tracked it down and threw Ladusau out at third base.

That out was key because Abilene Christian later loaded the bases with two outs. Texas then made a pitching change and Easton Tumis struck out pinch-hitter Aaron Staehely to end the threat and preserve the lead.

"For Tumis to come in and throw the ball down and away, elevate and finish with a slider on three pitches in a leverage situation as a freshman says a lot about him and about how we handled that inning," Texas coach David Pierce said. "It's a good sign for us."

Texas enters the BYU series having dropped the opening game of its last three series. Thomas said the offense will need to do a better job of providing run support for staff ace Lebarron Johnson Jr.

"You look at those games that we've dropped in the opener, we've kind of sat back a little bit, not taken it to them like we've shown that we can," Thomas said. "If we can just go out and set the tone early, just be aggressive, go out there and score runs for Lebarron, let him do his thing, we're going to be in a good spot."

AARON E. MARTINEZ/AMERICAN-STATESMAN Texas shortstop Jalin Flores, right, crosses home after a home run against Washington at UFCU Disch–Falk Field in March. Flores hit two homers in Tuesday night’s 11-1 win over Abilene Christian.