Texas baseball: David Pierce explains change from Jared Southard this season

Jared Southard had a strong year for Texas this year to help them to the College World Series. He made 24 appearances this year — doubling last year’s total — and David Pierce said he’s noticed some big changes from his redshirt sophomore pitcher.

In his first two years with Texas, Southard made 15 appearances and had a 7.71 ERA as a freshman in 2020. But this year, he became a key piece of the bullpen with a 4-1 record and a 2.63 ERA in 24 games. Pierce said Southard has been different this year, and the stats show that.

But Pierce was talking more about how Southard has been off the field with the mental game. That’s where he’s seen the greatest progress.

“It’s been a long process for him,” Pierce said. “I still don’t know if he’s there yet as far as the consistency. There are some complexities within his delivery that sometimes concern me to really be on time with it. But he works at it so hard. I think, too, you look back and he had some struggles, some mental struggles. He talked to his teammates about himself a lot. About his delivery, about his stuff. We just had a conversation, I said, ‘Let’s try this, let’s quit worrying about yourself. Let’s start focusing on your teammates and what can you do for your teammates, if it’s one guy one day?'”

After that conversation, Pierce said Southard started helping his teammates before games every day. He makes sure batting practice is ready to go, and he does it alone.

“The kid started setting up batting practice every single day by himself, probably over a year now,” Pierce said. “He has completely become the ultimate teammate, and there’s not one player on that team that doesn’t pull for him because of all the things that he does for them now. I just see a maturity and being very selfless and being very concerned about his team.”

Texas is gearing up to take on Notre Dame in the College World Series Friday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.