Longhorns see losing streak extend to four games with 9-2 loss to rival Texas A&M
The No. 24 Texas Longhorns entered a midweek game with No. 7 Texas A&M on a three-game losing streak, outscored 31-24 by LSU, Texas State, and Vanderbilt in Houston. Texas managed to surrender significant leads to the Bobcats and the Commodores during the course of games at Minute Maid Park.
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After a 9-2 loss to the Aggies on Tuesday night in front of a regular season Disch-Falk attendance record of 8060, David Pierce’s club will limp into the start of Big 12 play on a four-game losing streak without a whole lot to hang their hat on.
“Basically just laid an egg,” Pierce said. “It’s frustrating, but we won’t give in. We’re pretty resilient, and we’ll move forward.”
In Tuesday’s contest, a defensive lapse in the outfield by Porter Brown created the largest rally for the visiting team. What should have been the second out of the seventh inning popped in and out of Brown’s glove in deep left, keeping an A&M threat alive. The extra opportunities resulted in four unearned runs for A&M, the last two the result of a two-run Jackson Appel home run into the left field bullpen.
Then, a bases-loaded one-out single by Hayden Schott in the eighth inning off of Charlie Hurley brought two more around to put the score at its final 9-2 standing.
The four-run flourish followed six innings of the Aggies keeping the Longhorns at bay. All-American candidate Braden Montgomery knocked a two-run homer to Comal St. in right field during the top of the first for the first runs of the game.
Texas then put runners on in the first, second, and third innings but could not bring them around to score. A sacrifice fly from Jack O’Dowd in the fourth cut the Aggie lead to 2-1, but Jim Schlossnagle’s team would respond in the top of the fifth.
Luke Harrison issued a two-out walk to two-hole hitter Jace LaViolette then surrendered a single to Montgomery. Schott then pulled a ball to right field to score LaViolette to bump the A&M lead back up to two runs at 3-1.
The four-run rally would follow in the seventh, and the Aggies would score two more in the eighth.
Defense was not the Longhorns only bugaboo on Tuesday night. The bullpen continued to allow runs, both earned and unearned, to a quality hitting team. Harrison surrendered one earned run in 1.1 innings in relief of Tanner Witt. Max Grubbs allowed an unearned run in 1.2 IP. David Shaw was charged with three runs, none of them earned, but the Appel homer was the result of a pitch thrown by his left arm. The Aggies scored their two runs in the eighth off of Hurley.
Andre Duplantier pitched a perfect ninth.
Texas was able to get one run back in the seventh after the Aggie scoring spurt, but the offense could not make any additional changes to the scoreboard in the eighth and ninth innings.
“We’re not playing in three phases,” Pierce said. “Until we play three phases, it’s going to continue. We have to be able to not only play three phases but play the entire game.”
A&M starter Chris Cortez earned the win in a 3.0-inning declared start.
One of the few bright spots for Texas was the start from Witt. The junior right hander, who had suffered a recent setback in what’s become a lengthy recovery from a 2022 Tommy John surgery, lasted 3.1 innings and surrendered three hits, walked one, struck out three, and hit two batters. The only runs charged to him were the result of Montgomery’s first inning home run. He threw 40 strikes out of his 68 total pitches, and showed signs that a return to his freshman form is not completely out of the realm of possibility.
The Longhorns dropped to 3-6 against Texas A&M during the Pierce era, which began in 2017. Texas also dropped four consecutive games for the first time since the dismal 2019 season where Texas went 27-27.
Things don’t get any easier for Texas as they head to Lubbock this weekend to open Big 12 play with one last scheduled series with the No. 17 Texas Tech Red Raiders. Pierce said the upcoming stretch of games will be difficult, but the challenge of facing Tim Tadlock’s club is not going anywhere.
“We’ve gone to different messages, but at the end of the day they need to relax, they need to go play, and they need to trust themselves,” Pierce said. “You can go run (down) guys and you can scream at guys, but this generation doesn’t really respond to a lot of that.
“It’s not like they’re not working. For me, the worst thing I can do is lose the clubhouse and beat them down. It’s four games. We’ve got another tough stretch. It’s going to be tough in Lubbock. We know that. We’ve just got to face it head on.”
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Texas begins enters Big 12 Conference play on Friday for the final time before the Longhorn athletic department becomes members of the SEC starting with the 2025 baseball season.
