Texas Pitching Duo Outduels No. 8 Oklahoma on Saturday

Following staff ace, Ruger Riojas’ complete game performance in the 14-0 opening series run-rule over the No. 8 Oklahoma Sooners on Friday. The No. 2 Texas Longhorns were in good shape, pitching-wise, heading into Saturday’s series clincher.

Despite the Texas bats going cold for most of the night, fighting off 21 mph winds blowing into UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Longhorns' pitchers Luke Harrison and Sam Cozart were able to stagger Oklahoma at the plate, giving Texas a chance for the comeback.

The bats finally captured some fury in the final four innings to take a 4-3 victory over the Sooners in extra innings, clinching their third Southeastern Conference victory.

“We fought so hard as a team throughout the entire night,” Ashton Larson said. “Luke [Harrison] did an incredible job, and then [Sam Cozart] backing up on the pitching and our offense just continue to fight.”

Another Great Pitching Performance

Texas starting pitcher Luke Harrison had a couple of rough outings to open up the season, but that came from the purview of the absolute dominance of Riojas and Sunday starter Dylan Volantis.

Since the start of conference play, the veteran Harrison has really picked up his command of the mound, eating up innings and winning his battles against some of the best-hitting teams in the nation.

Unlike the previous two SEC series, Harrison did not have the pressure of losing the series during his start, instead working with the possibility of clinching it.

Against the Sooners, Harrison tied his season high in innings pitched with seven frames, tossing for six strikeouts and allowing five hits and three earned runs.

“I thought Luke did great too, and he gave us length in the game,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “For us to play 17 innings of baseball or so in two days and we’ve only used three pitchers, that's good, good for us.”

Oklahoma opened up the game in the second inning, when Harrison walked Sooners' first basemen Deiten LaChance and allowed a single to right fielder Alec Blair to put two runners on base. Oklahoma second baseman Kyle Branch batted in the two base runners with a double of his own.

Harrison started to pick up down the stretch, tossing for his first two strikeouts in the fourth inning, and allowed only one more earned run in the fifth inning to cap the Sooners' offensive production.

The veteran closed out his appearance with three strikeouts and forced easy routine plays for his defensive backdrop to reel in. Since the start of the conference play, Harrison has only allowed five earned runs and 14 hits, a vast improvement from his numbers in non-conference play.

Cozart closed out the final three innings, tossing three strikeouts and making quick work of the Sooners’ batting order with only 30 pitches.

“[I’m] Really fired up about [Cozart’s] development, his ability to pitch in big moments,” Schlossnagle said.

The Longhorns' pitching staff has had its best performance of the season, maintenance-wise, with two long starts from Riojas and Harrison, along with using just one bullpen arm this weekend.

While the rest of the pen is fresh for Sunday’s game, Schlossnagle liked where Cozart was at the end of the night and will try to test the freshman to see if he can pitch in back-to-back nights.

“We have other guys down there for sure that we can use,” Schlossnagle said. “One thing we would have to find out about, especially these freshmen, is ‘can they go twice in the weekend’ so he could definitely be available.”

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