David Pierce on elimination game battle with Cincinnati: 'We just gotta keep doing it, just keep playing'

The Texas Longhorns lost their opening matchup of the Big 12 tournament against Texas Tech, resulting in their first, and possibly last, showdown with the Cincinnati Bearcats as conference foes.

In the Longhorns and Bearcats elimination game, heading into the fifth inning, the No. 3 seed Longhorns held a 3-2 lead over the No. 5 Bearcats. As the bottom of the fifth got underway, Texas head coach David Pierce shared his thoughts on the action in the game so far.

Try Fubo for FREE today and don’t miss any of the action!

“Yeah, they had bases loaded, nobody out, and Gage (Boehm) came in there great job of minimizing. And then we had bases loaded, one out, and they did a great job of minimizing,” Pierce said. “So, it’s just a good baseball game so far. We gotta keep playing.”

Texas was in danger of going down big in the top of the 3rd inning, but some timely pitching by Gauge, along with excellent defense in the outfield, prevented Cincinnati from piling on to their 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the third inning, Longhorns outfielder Max Belyeu delivered a two-run home run to lead off the Longhorns scoring in the contest. Texas would add another run, but unfortunately, the Cincinnati defense buckled down, limiting them to just three runs in the inning.

As Pierce continued, he highlighted what his team had to do to finish out this elimination game with the victory while also praising Belyeu for getting the Longhorns’ offense started; calling his two-run homer ‘huge’ in more than one way.

“We just gotta keep doing it, just keep playing, don’t get too caught up in the ‘what’s at stake;’ just keep playing,” Pierce said. “Huge as in two runs-plus (and) huge as in how far he hit it.”

Since Pierce’s interview, Cincinnati has been able to tack on two more runs in the top of the sixth inning to reclaim the lead. The Bearcats now lead 4-3 in the seesaw battle between the two Big 12 rivals.