AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas baseball is undefeated after another weekend sweep to start the season. The No. 1-ranked Longhorns finished off Alabama with a 6-1 win Sunday. Texas (8-0) scratched together just enough offense to win the first two games of the series 1-0 and 2-0.
This is Texas’ second 8-0 start to a season in three years. The Longhorns opened with a 9-0 start to the 2020 season before losing to LSU in a season that was canceled during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Texas pitching staff will rightfully earn the headlines for its performance over the three-game series. Texas struck out Alabama hitters 32 times and limited the Crimson Tide to one run. Alabama had 19 hits over the three games, yet failed to connect when it mattered with runners in scoring position.
Tanner Witt may have been the best Longhorns starter of the weekend. He didn’t allow a hit Sunday until Owen Diodati’s home run over the right field fence in the fifth inning. Witt struck out nine in six innings for the win.
Longhorns hitters were stifled by Bama pitching and the cold, wet weather in Austin just a week after Texas scored 36 runs in the Rice series. Texas broke a scoreless tie Friday with an Alabama wild pitch in the seventh inning.
On Saturday, Texas manufactured its two runs off Crimson Tide starter Jean Antoine. Douglas Hodo III doubled a run home in the third inning. Austin Todd’s single in the fourth brought Ivan Melendez home for Texas’ second run.
Texas pushed ahead in the sixth inning Sunday. Singles by Trey Faltine and Dylan Campbell boosted Texas to a 4-1 lead that it wouldn’t relinquish.
Earlier this week, Texas won back-to-back nights at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. The Longhorns won Tuesday 12-0 before rallying from their first deficit of the season for a 5-4 win Wednesday.
Texas travels to play Sam Houston State Tuesday night before a true, benchmark weekend at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Classic at Houston’s Minute Maid Park. Texas will play Tennessee, LSU and UCLA in the annual invitational. The Volunteers and Tigers are ranked in this week’s college baseball polls.
