No. 7 Longhorns empty the bench, bullpen versus SFA in 13-2 win

Facing one of the worst Division I teams in the state of Texas in Stephen F. Austin, the Texas Longhorns looked to head into the trip to Kansas State with a little momentum from a win over the Lumberjacks. Though it took a few innings for Texas to start playing something resembling a “B” game, they eventually got it rolling and thoroughly outclassed SFA in a 13-2 win.

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Ivan Melendez stayed scorching with home runs No. 15 and 16 on the year as part of a three-hit, five-RBI night. Murphy Stehly extended his hitting streak to 19 games with a first-inning single.

Daniel Blair earned the win as part of an eight-pitcher effort. He was the only Longhorn hurler who pitched more than one inning, lasting 2.0 innings and allowing three hits, one earned run, and striking out one.

No SFA pitcher had an ERA under 3.60 for the 10-21 ballclub entering Tuesday’s contest. The team arrived in Austin with a team ERA of 8.52, and opponents were hitting .313 against the WAC team.

Melendez welcomed the visitors from Nacogdoches with a 455-foot home run over the centerfield batter’s eye in the first, the fourth of his career and 46^th in program history.

Ahead of last season, Texas made the batter’s eye taller as a result of the neighboring, light-colored softball practice facility, and turned any ball that hit the 28-foot tall edifice into a home run in order to reward hitters.

Since that time, Melendez has cleared the wall four times, including Tuesday’s blast.

“I’ve still have only seen one guy really do it,” Pierce said.

From there, though, Texas had about an inning and a half of issues. Andre Duplantier and Zane Morehouse each didn’t have their best stuff, combining to walk four, hit one, and allow one hit. Morehouse allowed the ‘Jacks to tie it with a wild pitch that scored a runner from second base when Silas Ardoin couldn’t locate it near the backstop.

Struggles continued briefly in the bottom of the third, when Dylan Campbell failed to run out a pop up to the pitcher that landed in fair territory, resulting in a 1-3 putout. Campbell was eventually pulled.

“It’s unfortunate because that’s not who he is,” Pierce said. “Honestly, I don’t think he really saw the ball, and if you don’t see it you’ve got to go. Lots of times there’s a feel in your swing and you think it’s foul. I think that’s really what happened, but we can’t let it pass. It’ll never happen to him again. He knows it, he regrets it, but it’s part of it.”

From that point on, Texas rolled to the tune of six runs in the third, three runs in the fifth, and one run in the sixth. Melendez drove in Douglas Hodo III with a double for another RBI. That was the first run of the inning, the other five came with two outs.

Austin Todd doubled to left to score two. Next at bat, Skyler Messinger singled and brought home two more to make it 5-1. Later in the inning, Jack O’Dowd, starting at second to give Mitchell Daly a day off, singled and scored two to make it 7-1. Melendez flew out to end the frame, his only at bat of the night that didn’t result in a hit. It ended an inning where 12 Longhorn batters made it to the box.

“It was sluggish,” Pierce said. “We were getting beat on 87, 88. It almost looked like we were sleepwalking the first couple of innings. We turned it around and turned it into a good night.”

SFA put up one more run in the fifth, but Melendez made sure it mattered little in the game’s outcome. He pulled a ball into the left field bullpen for a three-run homer, his second long ball of the night, to make it 10-2. A few batters later, Ace Whitehead, who replaced Campbell in the batting order, doubled and drove in one to make it 11-2.

The Longhorns rotated in a considerable amount of bench players, including Whitehead, O’Dowd, Kimble Schuessler, Gavin Kash, and Cam Constantine. Whitehead took advantage with his double, as did O’Dowd with a two-run home run in the eighth.

In relief of Duplantier and Morehouse, Luke Harrison pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Blair worked the fourth and fifth to earn the win. He was relieved by Lebarron Johnson, who struck out two in a perfect, nine-pitch sixth.

Joshua Stewart, Justin Eckhardt, and Aaron Nixon all allowed hits in their innings of work, but each were able to work out of it with no issue on the way to Texas’ 25th win of the season.

“We needed to see some guys out of the bullpen, and we needed to rest some guys,” Pierce said. “Having an opportunity to do both is great for the team. Some guys that just work really hard for the team, to get them an opportunity to play is good for everybody.”

The Longhorns head to Manhattan, Kan. on Wednesday for a Thursday-Friday-Saturday series with Kansas State.