For the 6th straight season the Texas Longhorns won their season opener, this time against a gritty Sacramento State Hornets baseball team.  Starting pitcher Parker French pitched 7 innings, giving up just 3 hits, no runs and striking out 5. The Longhorns took a 6-0 lead into the top of the 8th when UT pitcher Toller Boardman saw his first official action on the mound in a burnt orange jersey, after redshirting last year. Boardman was dinged early after facing just four batters and was replaced by closer Cory Knebel, who struggled as well. Knebel gave up 4 runs and was pulled by Augie Garrido with no outs and the bases loaded. Junior right-hander Ty Marlow replaced Knebel and worked the Longhorns out of a potential disaster by giving up just one hit in the inning and striking out Sacramento State’s Nathan Lukes to end the inning. Texas catcher Jacob Felts had an incredible pick-off of David Del Grande at 3rd which was a critical 2nd out in the 8th for Texas.
Offensively, the Longhorns looked sharp, particularly Mark Payton who went 4-5 with 3 RBI’s. Freshman shortstop CJ Hinojosa went 3-3 with one RBI on the night. Madison Carter notched the only other RBI for Texas on a fielder’s choice in the 3rd inning that scored Matt Moynihan.
Junior Nathan Thornhill will take the mound for the Longhorns in game 2 of the 3-game series against Sacrament State on Saturday at 2:00 pm.
