Trust between Stevens, Pierce, and Texas evident in 6-1 win over LSU
HOUSTON — Few situations in college baseball are as high leverage as College World Series games. But with 24,787 at Minute Maid Park on Saturday to see No. 1 Texas face No. 7 LSU, the stakes may not have been Omaha-level, but that was tough to tell by looking at the two teams on the field and the atmosphere surrounding them.
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Whether in Omaha or in Houston, successful teams are based on trust. Trust from the coaches in their players. Trust from the players in their coaches. On Saturday, Texas starter Tristan Stevens proved why UT head coach David Pierce has an enormous amount of trust in him. The fifth-year senior shutout a strong LSU lineup in 7.0 innings of work. He didn’t issue a walk and allowed five hits across his 100 pitches, earning the win in Texas’ 6-1 triumph.
“Tristan Stevens was outstanding,” Pierce said. “Just pitching, that’s what he does best. He just pitches. He doesn’t fear the hitter, he trusts his stuff in the zone. Just a super job there.”
That trust between Pierce and Stevens was evident in the sixth inning, when Stevens began the frame facing Tiger leadoff hitter Tre’ Morgan for the third time. He forced the first basemen who entered the game batting .410 to ground out.
The next two hitters singled to put two on with one out. Stevens got Jacob Berry to fly out, but Dylan Crews tagged from second and advanced to put runners on the corners with two outs.
LSU shortstop Jordan Thompson stepped to the plate. On Friday night, Thompson hit an walk-off home run in the 11th to top Oklahoma. Pierce never thought to pull his Saturday starter, and Stevens struck out Thompson with a sweeping 3-2 slider to keep the Tigers off the board.
Stevens exited the sixth with 83 pitches. Most starters’ nights would be over this early in the grind of a season. Not for Stevens. There would have been consequences had he been pulled.
“I think it has a lot to do with trust and the fact I’ve been here a little bit, so he kind of knows what he’s going to get out of me,” Stevens said. “It was definitely cool to see him extend me a little bit tonight. I hope he was going to extend me or else we were going to have some issues in the dugout.”
Stevens returned for the seventh with a 5-0 lead. He struck out the first batter he faced, then hit the next. Out No. 2 came via a flyout, then a single brought Morgan to the plate one more time.
A hitter seeing one pitcher four times in one game is a lot. But Pierce still had faith in his starter. He sent pitching coach Sean Allen to the mound ahead of the important at bat, signaling he wanted No. 35 to finish what he started. Stevens got Morgan to ground out, capping his best outing of the young season.
When dealing with a situation like facing a batter for a fourth time, or just pitching against potent offensive teams, pitchers tend to rely on their best stuff. The No. 1 pitch. The one they trust.
For Stevens on Saturday, while his slider was arguably his most effective offering, he felt confident in his entire repertoire. Slider, sinker, cutter, and change-up all felt good out of his hand.
“Early on, I kind of told Silas (Ardoin) and coach that I’m feeling pretty good right now, and let’s start mixing it up,” Stevens said. “I think y’all saw that throughout the game. Our goal was to keep LSU hitters off balance.”
Said Pierce: “I’ve seen him go cutter-change when his fastball wasn’t working and he wasn’t sinking it. When he can go to three to four of them, you can’t time it.”
Not only was Stevens making quick work of most Tiger hitters, he did so in a crowd that probably tilted more toward the purple and gold. LSU fans filled most of the open seats in Minute Maid Park, and were loud and rowdy throughout the game.
Except, when Stevens’ quieted them and brought the Texas faithful to their feet.
“He’s unfazed by anything, really,” said Douglas Hodo III. “That’s just awesome to see. That’s a good person who leads our team. He’s kind of a Texas dude, and represents the culture we have going on around here.”
With the way he pitched, Stevens didn’t require a ton of run support. But the No. 1 team did No. 1 team things early against the LSU Tigers.
After LSU intentionally walked Trey Faltine with one on and two outs in the second, Dylan Campbell stepped to the plate. He poked a dribbler to the mound that Tiger starter Ty Floyd fielded and fired to first. Problem is, when he fired, he sent it clear of Morgan. That allowed Ardoin to score from second after a double to lead off the inning.
The next hitter who came to the plate was Hodo III. He quickly came back around to the plate after he sent Floyd’s 2-0 fastball to the Crawford Boxes in left field.
Texas plated another in the seventh after LSU committed an error on a relay throw from right, allowing Hodo III to score the fifth Longhorn run. Murphy Stehly continued his recent hot streak with a solo homer in the eighth that landed in the first row of the left field seats and made it 6-0.
The Tigers got one back in the eighth against Andre Duplantier via a sacrifice fly. Pierce showed a measure of trust in Duplantier, too, leaving him in for one more batter with the bases loaded in the penultimate frame. He struck out his foe, and Pierce brought in freshman Luke Harrison to get the third out.
Harrison completed the task with an 0-2 breaking pitch for a called strikeout. LSU threatened to score in the ninth, but Harrison did his job once again, earning the save after stranding two runners in scoring position to end the game.
Texas heads to Sunday’s 3:00 p.m matchup with UCLA with two revelatory wins against No. 17 Tennessee and No. 7 LSU.
Against the Bruins, Pierce will trust in his team again. That helped Stevens on Saturday, as well as the entire Longhorn squad.
“Whenever they put that trust in us, we have trust in each other through that, too,” Hodo III said. “It’s pretty special to have the combination of both. I think it helps us play more loose and freely, and gives us the ability to compete in games like this.”
