Texas' pitching woes made apparent in 12-9 loss to Texas A&M

In front of 7990, the second-largest crowd for a Division I baseball game in UFCU Disch-Falk Field history, the No. 8 Texas Longhorns‘ pitching problems were on display for all to see. Those pitching problems were especially visible to Texas A&M hitters Dylan Rock and Jack Moss, who combined to go 8-for-9 with 10 RBI and a home run apiece in the Aggies’ 12-9 win Tuesday night.

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Those Texas problems centered around being unable to put away hitters with two strikes in the count. Nine of A&M’s 12 runs came when there were at least two strikes. Eight runs emanated from at bats where the Longhorn pitcher was at one point ahead in the count.

With a stiff wind blowing out to left at the Disch, Aggie hitters took advantage. Rock, Moss, and Austin Bost, the two through four hitters, all left the park on fly balls that on most occasions would have found Eric Kennedy’s glove in left.

“We’ve just got to pitch better,” Texas head coach David Pierce said. “We’ve got to get out of the middle of the plate. We’ve got to pitch ahead, and we’ve got to get the ball down. It’s that simple. You’re playing in conditions, we threw into the conditions, and we got beat from all of them.”

Only two Longhorn pitchers, Luke Harrison and Aaron Nixon, finished their outings without surrendering a run.

Justin Eckhardt started the contest for Texas, and gave up two runs in the first inning via RBIs from Rock and Moss on at bats where he was ahead in the count. In the third, A&M added two runs when Rock skied a ball to left that the wind turned from a deep fly into a big fly in the third.

Texas fought back to tie the game at four. Ivan Melendez drove in one in the first, and Douglas Hodo III scored on an Aggie error two batters later. Hodo III drove in one run with a sac fly in the second, and Messinger tied the game with an RBI infield single in the third.

Texas A&M’s four-spot in the fourth turned the game on its head. Jared Southard replaced Eckhardt and quickly recorded two outs via a strikeout and a groundout. His fastball touched 97 mph and he looked to be cruising to a quick inning. Then eight-hole hitter Logan Britt singled to right, and Southard walked back-to-back hitters to bring Rock to the plate.

Rock swung and missed at the first pitch, took the second for a strike, and watched two balls go by. Ball two was deemed just off the plate by home plate umpire Doug Williams. The next pitch would land over the fence, giving A&M an 8-4 lead they would not relinquish.

Pierce then left Southard on the mound, trying to instill some confidence in his right-hander. He finished the inning and worked a quick fifth, but he isn’t the only Texas pitcher needing a pep talk at this point.

Zane Morehouse, making his seventh appearance of the year, allowed an RBI double to Moss in the sixth to make it a 9-6 contest. Travis Sthele made his tenth appearance in the eighth inning and surrendered an RBI triple to Moss that completed his cycle. Next at bat, Bost smashed a homer to left to give A&M its 12th run.

“When you look at power arms, you can list five or six guys in our bullpen that can throw 95 to 97,” Pierce said. “The thing is, we’ve got to get to that, and we’re pitching backwards because we’re not throwing the fastballs in good locations. So that turns into not having power arms, so they’ve got to get locked in on being fastball first, to pitch off of the fastball to get to the slider.

“They’ve been struggling with it for a couple of weeks now. We’ve got to clean some stuff up.”

Ever since Tanner Witt was scratched from his start versus UCLA on March 6, Texas is 8-8. They’ve dropped from No. 1 to No. 8 in D1Baseball.com’s poll.

Texas is hitting well, including Tuesday’s nine-run, 15-hit performance that featured a two-home run game from Trey Faltine and seven total extra base hits. But the Longhorns lack the pitching performances from anyone outside of Friday starter Pete Hansen that can make any lead feel remotely comfortable for Pierce.

“That’s why we’re having basically different guys show up,” Pierce said when asked who he trusts out of his bullpen. “You would like to say Nixon right now for sure because of history, but he’s got to get better with his fastball as well. The slider is lights out, but it’s hard to pitch off of the slider knowing they don’t have to deal with the fastball, because now they can take the borderline slider that’s a ball and now they can sit on one pitch. And he’s working on it. I think they’ve just got to relax, get out of their head, and understand that.”

Pierce mentioned Lucas Gordon has found some success in recent weeks, and his Sunday outing at Texas Tech serves as good evidence. But outside of that recent start, Texas has failed to find consistency from whoever stands 60 feet, 6 inches from home plate.

“When you have a handful of guys at the same time having issues, then it really affects you,” Pierce said.