Texas baseball entered the season as the #1 team in the country and has lived up to expectations so far through 8 games. The Longhorns have a 8-0 record heading into Tuesday’s matchup against Sam Houston State. Let’s take a look at some the numbers behind the hot start for David Pierce’s club:
- 4– The number of earned runs the Texas pitching staff has allowed so far in 72 innings of work. The starting rotation of Pete Hansen, Tristan Stevens and Tanner Witt has been outstanding so far. Relievers Aaron Nixon, Travis Sthele, Daniel Blair and Luke Harrison have combined to allow 0 runs in 17.2 innings.
- 0.00– The ERA of Lucas Gordon and Andre Duplantier. The duo have served as the Longhorns 4th and 5th starters to begin the season, with Gordon also making a pair of appearances out of the bullpen. Duplantier looked very strong in his first appearance in nearly 2 years last Tuesday after missing 2021 due to Tommy John surgery. Gordon is holding opposing hitters to a .071 average through 8 innings of work.
- .385– Silas Ardoin’s average. The redshirt sophomore has been a mainstay behind the plate the last two seasons and has provided excellent defense, but his offensive numbers have been strong coming out of the gate in 2022. He has more walks (4) than strikeouts (2) and is tied for 2nd on the team with 9 RBI’s.
- .447– Ivan Melendez’s on base %. Melendez has done a good job of working counts and taking his walks early in the season. The batting average is nothing special (.250) but his presence in the lineup has been felt and teams have been pitching very carefully to him following his pair of home runs against Rice in the 3rd game of the season.
- 10– Texas will play 10 of their next 11 games away from Disch-Falk Field. Following tonight’s game in Huntsville, Texas is set to travel to Minute Maid Park in Houston this weekend for matchups against Tennessee, LSU and UCLA. The Longhorns will then square off against Texas State in a pair of midweek games next week before traveling to South Carolina for 3 games against the Gamecocks and midweek clashes against College of Charleston and The Citadel. The Longhorns should have a really good idea about who they are as a ballclub following this 11 game stretch.
