Texas baseball is winning, but these next five games will be a serious early test | Golden
Texas baseball hasn't looked perfect but has given the home folks a reason to be excited early this season.
The Longhorns had no problems with Cal Poly over the weekend and Sunday was a near perfect closeout, a 7-0 win that concluded a weekend of shutouts that represented the first time Texas blanked an opponent over a three-game series since the eventual 2002 national champions outscored UT-Pan American 39-0.
The Longhorns were definitely the hunters Sunday, their seventh straight home game to open the season and the 7,692 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field spent most of the afternoon giving standing ovations and exchanging high fives.
Third baseman Peyton Powell hit two homers. Right fielder Max Belyeu cranked out another bomb — his second of the weekend — and showed an arm that brought to mind former Horn Dylan Campbell, a 2023 All-American whose cannon arm is now in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. Right-hander Cody Howard pitched five scoreless innings for a staff that put up 27 goose eggs in all for the weekend.
No. 15 Texas (6-1) has had a terrific start but be assured: bigger games are on the way and the Longhorns are in no way a finished product. Porter Brown and Jack O'Dowd, both veterans, have yet to find their offensive stroke; the right-fielder and first baseman combined to go 0-for-21 with seven strikeouts over the weekend.
Golden: How the Texas Longhorns (and others) would have fared in a 12-team CFP last season
An important road trip to Houston
That’s the good thing about a team that’s off to a winning start. A coach like Texas' David Pierce knows he can continue to push his team to get better even if the Ws are piling. He knows that Jared Thomas and Powell will eventually need some help at the top of the order. Add the slow start we’re witnessing from starting pitcher Tanner Witt and these next five games on the schedule will be a nice little acid test before the conference-opening series at Texas Tech on March 8.
Texas should be ready for the Big 12. The Longhorns host St. John's, which upset No. 2 Florida in the season opener, on Tuesday before heading to Houston for the Astros Foundation College Classic this weekend where they'll play defending national champion LSU, Texas State and Vanderbilt at Minute Maid Park before the gigantic March 5 game at Disch-Falk against Texas A&M, another future SEC rival.
Bohls: Austin FC lacks offensive punch, defensive prowess, spark ... well, everything
“I think more than anything is just building confidence and building off the guys that are really playing well and swinging it well and then trying to get some guys right to get them in the mix,” Pierce said.
“Having played a good team like Cal Poly and shutting them out and sweeping and getting a sweep, it’s going to be a huge confidence booster going into this week,” Powell said. “But we got to have a short memory and get back to work tomorrow.”
Yes, the word “confidence” is being used a lot around Disch-Falk, yet there is the feeling that the Horns would like to see where they stand against better competition.
It’s coming.
The heat is about to get turned up; Texas' next five opponents sport a combined 24-9 record.
The Longhorns went wire to wire
Even with Cal Poly playing some competitive baseball in Sunday's series finale — the Mustangs registered nine hits but ran themselves out of scoring opportunities in three separate innings — the Horns won their fifth straight because they displayed the clutch gene.
More: For the first time since 2002, Texas shuts out a team over course of three-game series
They hit four homers and had a take-care-of-business mode look about them, a good trait for a team with high aspirations. And the 6-1 record sounds right; Texas' opponents so far are a combined 10-12 on the season. While this phase of the season is largely about tinkering with different lineups and rotations to gear up for conference play, it's never too early to develop good winning habits.
If anything, the defense has stepped up in the first seven games. Belyeu had arguably his most complete game of the season. When asked which he enjoyed more — his two-run shot that broke a scoreless tie in the fifth or the hose he displayed when he threw an absolute BB to Powell at third to get leadoff man Jake Steels and foil what would've been runners at the corners with no outs in the first — Belyeu set the long ball aside.
“I would say the hose because it kind of set the tone early and put a dent in them real quick,” he said.
Here comes the gantlet for Texas
It’s too early to start making reservations for Omaha, but it’s safe to say we will know more about the Longhorns in the next 10 days, given who they'll be playing. These next games against No. 3 LSU, No. 9 Vanderbilt and No. 7 Texas A&M will tell us something.
More: Hunter Dickinson helps Kansas Jayhawks muscle past Texas Longhorns in Big 12 basketball
Better yet, Pierce will get a chance to test some of his younger players against some of the best programs in the country.
With Thomas, Powell and shortstop Jalin Flores — who hit a solo shot on Sunday — playing well, Pierce didn’t seem overly concerned about Brown and O’Dowd not getting hits. He actually thought they swung the bat better Sunday. He believes they will return to form and if the youngsters develop, the Horns can be real players nationally.
“If you could have five guys in that lineup being successful, I think we just have to understand that when you're hot, just enjoy it,” Pierce said. “Keep doing it. And when you're not, don't get down.”
Words from someone who has coached in a CWS a time or two.
It’s a marathon season and the team standing at the end will be the one that best navigates the peaks and the valleys.
We’ll see if the Horns are still on the rise after these next five games.
Tuesday's game
St. John's (2-2) at No. 15 Texas (6-1), 6:30 p.m., LHN, 1300
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas baseball passes early season test with name opponents coming up
