Texas packs pressure on Tennessee in 7-2 win to remain undefeated
HOUSTON — There’s a saying about pressure making diamonds, but what about pressure on diamonds of the baseball variety? In the college game where many teams lack the all-around refinement of their big league counterparts, putting pressure on defenses and pitching staffs can be a formula for a lot of victories. The same goes for surviving that pressure.
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No. 17 Tennessee tried to pressure No. 1 Texas in a few ways on Friday night in each team’s first game in the Shriners Children’s College Classic. The Longhorns survived most of the Volunteers’ best attempts, while the bright orange UT could not withstand the searing burn applied by the burnt orange UT throughout the course of the game. David Pierce’s club won 7-2 to extend Texas’ season-opening winning streak to 10 games.
Tennessee sought to apply pressure in the early stages of the game. When a Drew Gilbert two-out single dropped in short left-center, Jordan Beck attempted to advance from first-to-third with two outs. Longhorn left fielder Eric Kennedy’s throw got away from Skyler Messinger at third, and Beck attempted to run home to score.
Starting pitcher Pete Hansen was there to back up the throw. He fielded the ball near the Vol dugout and threw home to Silas Ardoin, who applied the tag for the inning’s third out.
Texas withstood Tennessee’s initial application of pressure. It would take several innings before the Longhorns would be able to apply their own. Why? Volunteer starter Chase Burns, who elected to attend school in Knoxville instead of entering the 2021 MLB Draft, was on the mound and dealing in his 5.0 innings of work. Burns struck out 10, throwing 81 pitches and baffling Longhorn hitters with a sharp slider, a vicious cutter, and near-98 mph velocity on his four-seam.
Most Longhorn hitters, that is.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the fifth after an Evan Russell solo shot in the top half of the inning, Trey Faltine smashed a 2-0 fastball to Minute Maid Park’s Crawford Boxes.
Growing up in the Houston area, Faltine had seen a number of games watching Astro greats Craig Biggio and Jose Altuve put balls into the stadium’s short left field. He followed their example when Texas needed it most.
Aside from Tennessee’s opening-inning chance and fifth-inning solo home run, Texas withstood almost all the pressure Tony Vitello’s club tried to apply thanks to the efforts of the Longhorn battery. Hansen pitched 6.0 innings, allowing five hits and one earned run, walking one and striking out five. If his work wasn’t enough to keep Tennessee off the scoreboard, Ardoin was there to back him up.
Ardoin controlled the game from behind the plate, gunning down Drew Gilbert at second on Tennessee’s only stolen base attempt of the game in the fourth. That duo kept a Vol offense that entered the game with five players hitting over .350 at bay.
They did their job, and once Burns was pulled, Texas began to apply the pressure top-ranked teams tend to apply.
Eric Kennedy doubled to start the sixth, then Ivan Melendez doubled the next at bat to give Texas a 2-1 lead. Then with one out and two on, Murphy Stehly stepped to the plate.
He took signs, squared to bunt, then pulled his bat back and swung. His ball went straight to Tennessee second baseman Jorel Ortega, who booted it and allowed one runner to score to make it 3-1. One batter later, Messinger singled to score Ardoin and make it 4-1 Texas.
Tennessee attempted to fight back, and even plated a run in the seventh. Then with two runners in scoring position and two outs, true freshman Luke Harrison toed the rubber. He fired one strike to Luc Lipcius, made him foul off another, then painted the generous corner to end the significant Vol threat.
With that failure, Texas stepped on Tennessee’s throat in the seventh. Melendez hit a ball near the left field bullpen that ricocheted so many times that he was able to slide into third with a RBI triple.
Ardoin sent a ball to deep center that gave Melendez time to jog home on the sac fly. Stehly was the catalyst for offense again, this time receiving an RBI for his efforts on a single up the middle.
Vitello’s team put two RISP one more time in the eighth. Aaron Nixon stepped into the pressure-cooker the Vol offense can turn crank up at any moment and emerged without a run to his name over 2.0 innings of work. He finished things off with a 123 ninth.
Texas sends Tristan Stevens to the mound at 7 p.m. Saturday to face the No. 7 LSU Tigers, who hit a walk-off home run in the 11th inning to defeat Oklahoma on Friday afternoon, 5-4.
QUOTES: Trey Faltine
On hitting a home run in his hometown ballpark
“It’s pretty special. Coming here and growing up as a kid and stuff like that, seeing big league players and all the games, being finally back here and being able to perform like that is very fun, especially in front of family and friends. But I’m more happy about the W. I could have gone 0-for-4 tonight and it wouldn’t have mattered if we got the W. I’m happy about that. We’ve got two more games to dominate, so that’s what I’m worried about right now.”
On how many friends and family were at Minute Maid Park
“That I know of? It could have been 15 or 20. But it could be more. Who knows?”
On surviving Tennessee’s pressure, applying their own, and what it says about Texas
“I think (Pierce) is really big on scoring in multiple ways and having a deep lineup and finding multiple ways to do different things, have different outcomes. That’s just what it took today. There’s been games where that stuff doesn’t have to come out and we just hit. Today, it took a little bit more. It’s a good team we played today, so we had to pull some things out of the bag today. It just shows every day in practice and stuff like that, we work on that. We practice it every day, it’s not hard to just turn it on. That’s all it took.”
On Chase Burns
“He’s a really good pitcher. Credit to him, he pitched a really good game. We just stayed the course. Play nine innings. He had us on the ropes in the first couple of innings, but we just kept going and kept going. We finally got to the bullpen, and that’s when the game opened up a little bit.”
On the importance of this game as a test
“It’s huge. Like you said, it’s a test for us. To come out here and perform, and perform the way we did under pressure, come back and win after getting down in I think the third inning, it’s huge for us. It prepares us for the next two games, which are really good teams, too. That’s all you can say, it prepared us for this, we’re ready for it, we want these challenges, and we thrive on stuff like that.”
On Ivan Melendez’ triple
“I’ve have never seen that. I’ve never seen a ball go off a pad, hit another pad, and go back to where it came from. That was really weird, but it helped us out so I’ll take it.”
On how many games he’s attended at Minute Maid Park
“I think from when I was five to maybe ten, we had season tickets. I came to almost every home game. That’s a lot. In high school, probably about the same thing. I’d probably say about 300, 400 maybe.
On Luke Harrison pitching under pressure
“He’s a young guy and he definitely knows what he’s doing. I think all our pitcher know what they’re doing out there. They take pride in coming in in those moments like that. Luke, he’s had moments like that where we prepared him in the fall and early in the spring, and he’s come through every time. It’s nothing new for us to see him come through like that. He’ll continue that the whole season.”
QUOTES: Ivan Melendez
On his triple
“I saw it hit the left side of the padding, then it hit the WM (advertisement), and then it was bouncing around and I was already on second. I’m like, ‘let’s send it. We’re up.’ Just knowing the outfield, the ball is going to bounce around. Those were my only thoughts.”
On Chase Burns, if he’s the best pitcher they’ve faced, and what was giving Texas trouble
“Definitely is the best pitcher. Probably his hard slider, it definitely looks like a fastball out of the hand. Then it just breaks like 12 inches. You have to see it pop up and go with it, see it deep.”
On if they felt good once they got to the Tennessee bullpen
“That’s our goal every game. We want to get to that bullpen. We want to work the count, grind out ABs, and try to get a lot of pitches under the starter’s belt so we can get into that bullpen a lot quicker. If it was a series it’d be a lot better because there is less arms coming out of the bullpen. Since we’re only facing them once it doesn’t matter.”
On the win versus a quality opponent
“Definitely feels great. Obviously, they’re an SEC team with great arms and great bats. We’re out there competing and I just felt like we had more energy. They slowed it down halfway through the game. I wouldn’t say they gave up, but they kind of handed it to us in my opinion.”
On Texas’ defense
“Pete was throwing strikes. Pete always gives us a chance to win. Pete’s a ground ball pitcher. They caught a few barrels but thank God they didn’t go anywhere, right to our outfielders. Our coach preaches pitching and playing defense. The hitting is timely.”
On Texas’ killer instinct
“I guess going with Burns, that was their all-or-nothing type deal. They have good stuff, all those arms were 90-92 with sink, with run. Every single arm, it just seemed like they were a different pitcher. The last guy looked like a slingshot. One guy was sinking it. For the most part, all of their pitchers had pretty good sliders in my opinion.”
QUOTES: David Pierce
Opening statement
“Good win. Great win, matter of fact. Great environment, great atmosphere for our team. I thought they went out and handled that piece really well. Pete did a nice job of going out and giving us a chance to win. They’ve got some really good hitters, they squared up a few, but our defense is solid. I thought Douglas Hodo did a great job in center, making a couple really tough balls look easy. Then where we’re playing (Eric Kennedy), because of that corner there, he had to run a long ways down the line to make a play. Both of those guys were great, then Nixon pitching, and the defense, were outstanding. A guy that always gets overlooked is Silas (Ardoin), and I thought he played a great game today. Some great picks, took some blocks, tough blocks, and really took care of the ball. Good night. Opportunistic offensively. Good win.”
On if he wanted to see something specific against a quality opponent
“I think they did what we’ve been talking about, and that’s going to the mental game and being able to go through at bats when they struggled in an at bat, or in a previous at bat, and still have a clear mind to go up there and compete. They competed really well. We didn’t have a lot of success early, but they hung in there and that’s a great sign. I knew it was going to be a tough environment for them because we’ve got some kids that have never played in this one. This is like Omaha in March, and a great venue to do it.”
On surviving Tennessee’s pressure then applying their own, and the first inning play
“We view pressure as applying it. It’s our goal to make sure we’re always the ones smothering them with strikes, playing defense like there’s 10-12 guys out there, and just fighting in their at bats. I’ve seen that play, not exactly that play, but a pitcher get a ball in that situation and just panic the throw. I thought Pete was very relaxed, knew exactly where the mitt was, and did a great job.”
On Luke Harrison
“It’s big. To see him do it here was even bigger. He was in a matchup with Lipcius. It was one hitter he was going to face, and he did a great job. Kid’s been incredible so far.”
On making the error hurt Tennessee in the sixth
“I’m going to be honest with you, it was a mistake on the call. We did a slash hit-and-run with (runners on) first and second, and on my card it wasn’t on there. The players got it, then Mitch was looking at me from second and said repeat, like it was an odd call. Murph should have stepped out and called timeout. We got a huge break right there because it could have been a double play. We weren’t even running. Then we executed the hit-and-run right behind it, and I actually called that one. The first one was an absolutely lucky play.”
