David Pierce talks the development of Lebarron Johnson Jr., message to team ahead of Game 2 vs. Stanford

Texas coach David Pierce went to Lebarron Johnson as the starting pitcher for in Sunday’s Game 2 against Stanford as the Longhorns aim for the series sweep. He pitched 4.1 innings before Travis Sthele entered in relief with the Cardinal holding a narrow 3-2 lead.

Johnson allowed seven hits, struck out four and also walked four before being pulled in the top of the fifth. Shortly before that moment, Pierce joined the ESPN2 broadcast to offer his thoughts on how the pitcher has progressed since joining the team last season.

“Unbelievable,” the coach said. “This is a guy that came in and all he’s done is just paid attention. He’s like a sponge. Whatever you tell him, you better be right because he’s gonna try to do it. He works hard, he’s got a great arm, great body and is a great teammate.”

Lebarron Johnson redshirted last season after committing to play for Texas out of Paxon School for Advanced Studies in Jacksonville, Florida. He saw his first action this season, appearing in 19 games with 12 starts with an 8-3 record. He ranks second on the team with 94 strikeouts and has an ERA of 2.62.

The Longhorns are coming off of a win in the opening game of the series against Stanford on Saturday. However, it didn’t come without some late-game drama.

Texas found itself trailing 5-2 entering the ninth inning of that contest. However, several Stanford miscues would open the door for the Longhorns to get back in the game. The Cardinal walked the first three batters of the ninth inning and then allowed two of them to score on a fielding error.

The Longhorns went on to score three runs before even recording their first hit of the inning, which drove in two runs including the go-ahead one. After that, Zane Morehouse entered the game to close and struck out three straight batters to give Texas the 7-5 win.

Coming off of such an emotional win, Pierce did his best to get his team to focus on the task at hand Sunday.

“Today we’ve gotta play one pitch at a time,” he said. “We’re playing the game today. We’re not worries about anything else.”

Shortly after Johnson exited Sunday’s, Texas allowed two more runs as the Cardinal increased their lead to 5-2. That is still the score in the bottom of the fifth inning. The Longhorns will hope for another comeback over the final four innings to avoid a Game 3 on Monday.