David Pierce opens up on Texas' success to end the year
Texas has slowly but surely become one of the hottest teams in the country, winning their last five regular season games in a row and sweeping in the Coral Gables Regional to advance to the Super Regional round of the NCAA Tournament. Longhorns head coach David Pierce was asked when it all clicked for his team, revealing the turning point that changed the trajectory of their season.
“We just had one of our mental talks, I like to have the players talk, and one of the things that came up was the embarrassment of getting swept at home by OU and not liking that feeling and doing something about it. Game one against San Jose State when we basically just blew the game in the eighth inning and that was probably the turning point for me when I saw them in the clubhouse and they were truly discouraged,” Pierce said. “They were truly upset with their play and embarrassed.”
The Longhorns went 6-2 after their series loss to Oklahoma, winning two conference series before their disappointing loss to San Jose State. But they looked like a different team for the remainder of their series with the Spartans, defeating them 24-3 and 18-6 to close out the series and create some momentum fro the postseason.
“They keep that on their back pocket and I think ever since May 1 we’ve kind of looked at and I’ve used the theme hey we’re in Super Regionals right now, because I’ve got a new team,” Pierce said. “I’ve got guys that have never been in a Super Regional, so we just started playing every weekend like win or go home. And they’ve just continued to pick each other up and I think that’s been huge too.”
The Longhorns lifted each other up through a sweep of the regional round, where they defeated Louisiana and Miami twice to keep their national championship hopes alive. And during the process, they’ve benefitted from the sage advice of a Texas baseball alum who’s played in a handful of College World Series games and MLB All-Star games.
“We had Houston Street come in last week and just talking about picking up your teammate. Literally when you pass the ball, it’s your responsibility out of that bullpen to pick up your teammate. It’s your obligation to take care of your starting pitcher, it’s your obligation to do your job in the box, fight with two strikes, whatever the case is,” Pierce said.
The Longhorns may not have a closer quite like Street on their roster, but they have each other, and with the current mindset and mentality they have they’ll surely be one of the harder teams to stop this postseason.
“Team is a powerful thing, and we’ve played a lot of teams probably more talented than us,” Pierce admitted. “But I think our team is a strength within itself, our team is our strength, and guys pitching in, and unsung heroes. And we’ve talked about that, if you’ve had a poor year you can turn that around starting May 1, you can turn it around right now and some guys did that even this weekend. So it’s just been huge to watch their effort and their attitude of not giving in and not giving up.”