The prolific Texas Longhorn offense should play in Omaha

The 2022 Texas Longhorn baseball team put together by head coach David Pierce obliterated single season program records for home runs with 128 and total bases with 1304. The 2022 team’s .560 slugging percentage is on pace to shatter the record mark of .508 set by the 1974 squad, and the Longhorns are not too far off from all-time paces for doubles, hits, RBI, and at bats.

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No matter where Texas has played their games, whether the 34 at pitcher-friendly UFCU Disch-Falk Field, the eight at MLB ballparks Globe Life Field and Minute Maid Park, the 25 away from Austin in some hitter-friendly destinations like Lubbock and San Marcos, or even the recent super regional venture in a hitter’s paradise in Greenville, N.C., the Longhorns have slugged the ball around and out of the park with contributions from every spot in the batting order.

Led by Big 12 player of the year, first-team All-American, and Golden Spikes Award finalist Ivan Melendez, the Longhorn offense played a brand of baseball not just different from the rest of the Pierce era, but also from most other Longhorn baseball seasons. Melendez led an offense that as a team hit .318, had an on-base percentage of .412, and had 296 extra-base hits.

Melendez was responsible for 52 of those 296, with a BBCOR-era record 32 homers.

Six different Longhorns with at least 40 appearances — Melendez, Murphy Stehly, Skyler Messinger, Douglas Hodo III, Austin Todd, and Eric Kennedy — are batting above .300.

Seven Longhorns have double-digit home run totals, creating a lineup that has potent power from the top with Hodo III to the bottom with Trey Faltine.

The only place where Texas is deficient compared to other years? Stolen bases, but with good reason. When bases are occupied, it’s much tougher to pitch around Longhorn hitters, or else opponents risk putting even more runners on base for a possible out-of-the-park blast. Potentially running into outs or creating an open base for opponents to pitch around dangerous hitters like Melendez, Stehly, and Messinger isn’t the best strategy for this offense.

It’s not so much “get ’em on, get ’em over, get ’em in” as it is “meet you at home plate.”

Will the same hold true in Omaha? There’s no reason to think it won’t even with how Charles Schwab Field Omaha plays.

“It’s never going to play small,” Pierce said Wednesday. “It’ll play neutral, but it can play big. You’ve just got to understand that in your approach knowing that my goal here today, if I’m going oppo, I’ve got to get on top of the ball a little bit more. That potential home run at East Carolina hopefully turns into a double in the gap. We’ve got to stay through the baseball the further it gets away from us. I think that’s going to be a key factor.”

Look at last year’s College World Series run as a sign of success to come. Aside from performances to forget against the 2021 CWS’ most outstanding player Will Bednar and ace Mississippi State reliever Landon Sims, the Longhorn bats found success at Charles Schwab Field Omaha after a postseason where runs were never in short supply. Texas scored at least six runs in its three wins in Omaha, including the one win Pierce’s squad had over eventual national champion Mississippi State.

Kennedy, Melendez, Campbell, Hodo III, Faltine, Ardoin, and Stehly all return from that 2021 team. Todd, who missed the CWS due to injury, and Messinger, who transferred from Kansas, are in Omaha champing at the bit to prove they can follow suit.

This year, there are no pitchers as dominant as Bednar or Sims on the Texas side of the bracket. Not to say there are no quality pitchers throwing for Notre Dame, Texas A&M, and Oklahoma, but none approach the caliber of a No. 14 overall pick like Bednar or a first-team All-American like Sims.

Consider also the success of the Longhorn bats at home this season. Even with a park that’s 340 feet to left, either 365 or 370 feet to the alleys, 400 feet to center, and 325 to right, Texas was dominant on offense at home. The Horns reached a double-digit run total 16 times at the Disch. Runs were rarely hard to come by for Texas, who was not shut out this season.

Finally, the approach at the plate the Longhorns utilize under Pierce’s vision and via guidance from assistants Philip Miller and Troy Tulowitzki work in any ballpark. The record number of home runs screams “Texas just swings for the fences!” In reality, that’s not the approach. At bats are usually taken with the intent of putting balls into the gap. In this program, home runs are seen as doubles that went over the fence.

At Charles Schwab Field, there is a lot of room for doubles to find gaps. Texas can put the ball over the fence in Nebraska, too, as they slugged five homers in five games in last year’s trip to the national semifinals.

Those five games also serve as valuable experience no one else on the Texas side of the bracket has.

“I think our guys that have been there were able to share some things, some thoughts, not only about the whole carnival but also about how the field plays, the shadows, wind conditions, all that,” Pierce said. “That piece is really beneficial. You can tell them as a coach, but when they hear it from each other, it’s much better.”

Past performances aren’t indicators of future results, but experience is experience. Plus, the 2022 season’s results for the Longhorns speaks for itself.

Unless a Fighting Irish pitcher has the performance of his life in game one, followed by an equally strong performance by a hurler from the Aggies or Sooners in the second game, expect Texas to score runs at the College World Series.

Anything else would be a significant deviation from the norm.