Texas Pitching Staff Proves Itself Again by Stifling Tennessee

Image credit: Pete Hansen (Photo by Eddie Kelly)

HOUSTON — Through the first nine games of the season, the Texas pitching staff had done everything in its power to live up to the expectation that it could be the best unit in the country. 

It had a 0.67 ERA. It hadn’t allowed more than four runs in any game, it hadn’t allowed more than two runs in any weekend game and it had thrown four shutouts. The weekend rotation of Pete Hansen, Tristan Stevens and Tanner Witt had allowed all of two runs total. 

But with all due respect to Alabama, which the Longhorns held to one run in three games last weekend, they hadn’t done it against an offense anywhere near as prolific as Tennessee’s. Until Friday, that is, when Texas won a 7-2 contest that ran late into the night at Minute Maid Park. 

Hansen, the lefthander, started the game, and while Tennessee was more effective against him than Rice or Alabama was the previous two weekends just by virtue of scoring a run off of him on an Evan Russell solo home run in the sixth, he mostly had the same level of success. He threw six innings, giving up five hits and one run with one walk and five strikeouts. 

“Pete was throwing strikes. Pete always gives us a chance to win,” said Texas DH Ivan Melendez. “Pete’s a ground ball pitcher. They caught a few barrels, but thank God they didn’t go anywhere (but) right to our outfielders.”

It was another performance that provides evidence that there might not be a better pitcher in the country in the purest sense of the word. Hansen doesn’t work with eye-popping stuff compared to many of the other top-flight pitchers in the game, with a fastball that sits in the high 80s and low 90s, but he locates everything in his arsenal well, and he pitches with confidence knowing the kind of support he has behind him with an elite defensive unit. That was on display Friday. 

“Our defense was solid,” Texas coach David Pierce said. “I thought Douglas (Hodo) did a great job in center making a couple of really tough balls look easy. And with where we’re playing E.K. (left fielder Eric Kennedy), because of that corner there, he had to run a long way down to the line to make a play. Those guys were great. Pitching and defense was outstanding.”

Not dissimilar from the way Hansen and the rest of the Longhorns pitch to the fact that they have a top-shelf defense behind them, the Texas offense, without being the most imposing lineup around, tends to just find a way to do enough. 

Occasionally they’ll run into a ball, as shortstop Trey Faltine did for a monster solo home run to left field just below the train tracks in the fifth inning, but mostly, they’re just going to try to put the ball in play, put pressure on a defense and take advantage of what they’re given. 

A typical example came in the bottom of the sixth with the game tied 1-1. With Tennessee righthander Chase Burns out of the game after striking out 10 in five innings, Eric Kennedy and Ivan Melendez blitzed righthander Camden Sewell with back-to-back doubles to make it 2-1.

Mitchell Daly then drew a walk, moved to second on a fielder’s choice and came home on an error by Tennessee second baseman Jorel Ortega, who was rushing to begin what would have been a 4-6-3 double play, to make it 3-1. Texas then made the error hurt even more by tacking on another tally on an RBI single off the bat of Skyler Messinger, making it 4-1. 

With the inning-opening doubles, Texas would have taken the lead in that frame regardless, but the Ortega error left the door ajar for more, and the Longhorns turned it into a big inning. 

“Coach (Pierce) is really big on scoring in multiple ways and having a deep lineup and finding multiple ways to do different things (and) have different outcomes,” said Texas shortstop Trey Faltine. “That’s just what it took today.”

Texas also showed Friday night that it has the killer instinct to put teams away rather than toying around with them. When Tennessee fought back with a run in the seventh and seemed to have regained some momentum after the tough bottom of the sixth, the Longhorns answered with three more runs in the bottom of the seventh to make it a 7-2 lead, which felt a bit more comfortable. 

It should be said, however, that the bullpen didn’t turn in the cleanest performance. Righthander Travis Sthele, who had thrown six scoreless innings coming into Friday, got tagged with an earned run in the seventh on two hits and a walk, and lefthander Luke Harrison had to enter mid-inning to get a strikeout on Luc Lipcius to end that threat. 

Righthander Jared Southard came on to start the eighth, but he was removed before recording an out after he walked Jordan Beck, hit Drew Gilbert and started Trey Lipscomb with a 2-0 count. Righthander Aaron Nixon entered to put out the fire and did so with a lineout to left, a strikeout, and after a two-out walk to load the bases, a swinging strikeout. Nixon came back out in the ninth and worked a perfect inning to close out the win without incident. 

But even the wobbles in the bullpen served to show the position of strength Texas is working from. It didn’t have to push to try to get Sthele through the seventh inning, and it didn’t have to hope that Southard would eventually be able to find the plate with more regularity. It was able to hit the eject button and turn to Harrison and Nixon in those moments. 

Harrison, just a freshman, has already shown a knack for getting big outs in moments like this in spite of his inexperience. 

“It’s big and to see him do it here, it’s even bigger,” Pierce said. “But he was in a matchup with Lipcius, the one hitter he’s going to face, (and) did a great job. The kid’s been incredible so far.”

The performance of Hansen and the pitching staff more generally limiting Tennessee to two runs is the headline item, but in a few different ways, the Longhorns showcased Friday how they’re working with a stacked deck of a roster that will make them a tough No. 1 team to topple.