The Texas Longhorns, who are currently 7-5 on the season after losing three games in the Astros Foundation College Classic and suffering a crushing 9-2 loss to the No. 7 Texas A&M Aggies in Austin on Tuesday, will travel to Lubbock to begin Big 12 play against the No. 17 Texas Tech Red Raiders.
Head coach David Pierce’s squad, which is desperate for some consistency as it embarks on its first real road trip of the season, is currently experiencing its worst four-game losing streak since 2019.
Pierce stated on Tuesday, “We do not play defense when we pitch.” “When we play defense, we’re not hitting. When we’re really [swinging] hot bats, it’s the combination of pitching and defense. We’re not playing three phases — until we play three phases, it’s going to continue. We have to be able to not only play three phases, but play the entire game.”
Perhaps the most concerning phase right now is the starting pitching. The preseason Big 12 Pitcher of the Year, Lebarron Johnson Jr., is off to a strong start this Friday, with a 2.25 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, and 20 strikeouts in 16.0 innings. However, Johnson only lasted 3.0 innings against LSU last week, which set the stage for a difficult week for the bullpen. Then, in the Texas State game on Saturday, starter Charlie Hurley extended it even more by allowing four runs on three hits in just 1.2 innings. Cody Howard, starting on Sunday, is replacing Tanner Witt. He was effective in relief against San Diego and went five innings without allowing a run the next week. In Sunday’s 11-3 loss to Vanderbilt, he managed to last 4.2 innings before giving up five runs on six hits and sparking the Commodores’ comeback.
The lack of power arms and clearly defined roles are issues that become more noticeable during the losing streak, even in the absence of increased pressure from quick starts. This season, right-hander Gage Boehm is the only save for the team, but it is unclear who Pierce can rely on in the closing stages of games. Particularly struggling is left-hander David Shaw, who gave up two runs in each of his games against Texas State and Vanderbilt over the weekend before getting caught in a Porter Brown error on Tuesday. Shaw gave up a two-run home run one batter later, unable to make up for the error in left field.
The 14 mistakes made by the Longhorns have cost them dearly, as opponents have capitalized on the errors to score 14 earned runs, tying the team’s.970 fielding percentage for 119th place in the country.
On opening weekend, right fielder Max Belyeu made two errors: one against Texas A&M that resulted in two runs scored, though they were not considered unearned; and another that tied the game in the seventh inning of the team’s 6-5 loss to San Diego.
First baseman Jared Thomas made a mistake in the seventh inning against LSU in Houston, which resulted in a three-run home run that ended the game. Houston was behind 3-0. Hurley gave up two singles to begin a five-run second inning in the 11-0 loss to Texas State. He then erred on a pickoff attempt, threw two wild pitches that allowed a run to score, and put a runner on third base before leaving the field. Second baseman Jack O’Dowd erred on a sacrifice bunt attempt to load the bases, allowing the next batter to hit a bases-clearing triple that opened up a five-run seventh inning for Vanderbilt. The fourth unearned run of the inning gave the Commodores a 12-11 lead that help in the comeback victory.
The bats are least to blame of the three phases for the four straight losses, though they did demonstrate a lack of ability to make contact against elite pitching when they struck out twenty against the Tigers. Additionally, the Longhorns struggled in their defeat on Sunday, going 3-for-17 (.176) in the last five innings before failing to capitalize on six walks given up by the Aggies to leave nine runners stranded on Tuesday. Texas batted.206 to end the game, striking out in the final six at-bats and 12 times overall. After failing to capitalize on runners on first and second with one out in the first inning, Texas went the remainder of the game without putting together enough successful at-bats to ever make the Texas A&M pitchers uncomfortable.
Texas Tech, which leads the country in runs scored (163) and averages 13.6 runs per game, presents a formidable challenge to the Texas pitching staff in Lubbock. The team is hitting.364 with an OPS of 1.119, and seven of the eight regulars are above.300, with Damian Bravo leading the way at.563. After a breakout sophomore season in which the Sour Lake product batted.327 and led the Big 12 in home runs (26), RBIs (84), and total bases (182), Gavin Kash, a former Longhorn, leads the Red Raiders in home runs with four. Texas Tech’s second-best single-season total in 2023 is Kash’s 26 home runs.
In 2022, Kash was a limited player for Texas, making only 16 appearances (four starts) while batting.174 with nine strikeouts in 23 at-bats. Pierce’s attempt to manage the roster backfired, despite the fact that Kash was still a promising player at the time. The Longhorns head coach talked about the possibility of having to change Kash’s scholarship or allow him to enter the portal if that was not acceptable during the interim between the MLB Draft and the NCAA transfer portal opening.
The Longhorns might have won the College World Series last year had Kash not entered the portal and swiftly displayed the star power for the Red Raiders. The Longhorns lost in the Palo Alto Super Regional. In fact, the Longhorns might have hosted a regional and a super regional if Kash had performed as well at Texas as he did at Texas Tech in 2023. He was that good.
Last year, when speaking about the situation, Pierce gave a direct description.
The negative aspect of that is that you can not worry about it; instead, you should let the draft play out, see what you need or what kind of scholarship money you have, and assess how your roster and incoming roster look. Pierce made this statement.
“And if we come to a decision and the kid gets stuck—either with needing to get a loan or with transferring and not being able to play—I just did not think it was right to do that with any of our players. At the end of the day, I want it to work out for the players, even though sometimes things do not go your way.
Since Pierce does not think this generation responds well to being yelled at or forced to run as punishment, he is leaning on the players to trust themselves and relax in order to keep the clubhouse, which is influencing his decision to forgo the tactics advocated by his fiery predecessor, Augie Garrido.
Should that fail, there is a significant easing of the schedule in the upcoming month, which gives the Longhorns enough time to get better. This team needs to drastically improve overall, as seen by the results of the previous four games.