Series Recap: #1 Texas Sweeps Rice, Outscoring the Owls 36-3 to Open the Season 3-0
Texas baseball opened their 2022 season with a three game sweep of the Rice Owls, doing so in dominant fashion. All facets of the game were clicking for the Longhorns as they outscored the Owls 36-3 over the three game set. As the Longhorns look to make it to Omaha yet again, look no further for a breakdown of the three games from the season opening series.
Game 1: Rice 0 Texas 7
Texas trotted out staff ace Pete Hansen to start their season and he delivered in dominant fashion. The Golden Spikes candidate started his season off strong, going six shutout innings while tossing eight strikeouts and only allowing three hits on the day. If Texas can get consistent performances like this one out of Hansen, their pitching staff will be deadly this season. As for the offense, despite putting up seven runs, it was the lowest offensive output of the series. The Longhorn offense was led by catcher Silas Ardoin, who went 3-3 with three RBI, including a mammoth home run, the first of the year for the Longhorns. All nine Longhorn batters reached base via a hit, walk or an error as they took game one of the series.
Game 2: Rice 1 Texas 15
On Saturday the Texas bats broke out in a big way, pushing across 15 runs in what was an absolute blowout. The man of the hour for the Texas offense was Trey Faltine as the shortstop went 3-5 with two doubles while driving in four runs on the day. However the main story in this one was the Rice pitching staff and their inability to find the strike zone, issuing 11 walks which the Longhorn offense took full advantage of. On the mound for Texas was Tristan Stevens who followed up Hansen's six shutout innings with six shutout innings of his own, racking up three strikeouts in the effort. With the win on Saturday the Longhorns managed to clinch at least the series win over Rice and looked to Sunday to get the series sweep to start the season with a 3-0 record.
Game 3: Rice 2 Texas 14
Looking to clinch the series sweep to start the season, the Longhorns came out on Sunday and yet again absolutely dominated Rice, winning 14-2. Tanner Witt was on the mound for Texas, and was making his first collegiate start after coming out of the bullpen as a freshman in 2021. Witt gave up a first-inning solo home run to Rice's Austin Bulman. From there Witt settled in, working around jams to keep Rice off the board while he was on the mound. Witt threw five innings of one-run baseball while tallying five strikeouts. Once again, however, the offense stole the show, led by Ivan Melendez. Melendez, aptly nicknamed the Hispanic Titanic, blasted two mammoth three-run home runs that totaled roughly 900 combined feet, ending the day 2-4 with six RBI. Behind the bat of Melendez and a dominant outing once again from the pitching staff, the Longhorns blew out Rice to complete their sweep of Rice and start 3-0.
You can find Connor Zimmerlee on Twitter @Connorjz98
Want the latest in breaking news and insider information on the Longhorns? Click Here
Want to join in on the discussion? Click here to become a member of the Longhorns Country message board community today!