Texas Relievers Impress Against Texas A&M Corpus Christi

It has been a rocky year in the bullpen for the No. 4 Texas Longhorns, with their reputation repeatedly taking hits behind shoddy performances.

It's been the key to beating the Longhorns — take out the starter early and force them to call into the pen to continue dominance at the plate to steal a victory. In the first inning against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, it looked like the Islanders had already cracked the code, jumping up to a 5-0 lead.

Texas trotted out Michael Winter for his first career start and his second appearance in four days after being sidelined for the past month with an undisclosed illness.

Head coach Jim Schlossnagle had praised Winter before his illness as one of his solid relief arms, but on Tuesday, he wouldn’t see the end of the inning, being pulled after 16 pitches.

“I really wanted to see him start,” Schlossnagle said. “Coming off his illness, we may have asked a little too much of him to go from Saturday… He just wasn't very crisp.”

Despite tapping into the bullpen early for the second time in four days, the Longhorns were able to settle down the Islander bats, allowing their hitting crew to make up for the damage in the middle of the game.

Much Needed Confidence Booster

Hudson Hamilton has not seen the most action this season, with only one previous appearance going longer than an inning. Against the Islanders, Hamilton set his season high in innings pitched with 3.1 and strikeouts with four.

“Hudson was outstanding,” Schlossnalge said. “[He] gave us a chance to come back while we put together good at-bats.”

Jumping into the game in the top of the fourth inning, Hamilton was able to quiet a once rowdy Texas A&M Corpus Christi offense to just three base hits. It gave the Longhorns much-needed stability as they started their own rally at the plate in the middle innings.

While Kade Bing, the Longhorns' midweek starter last season, has not had the same responsibilities as he did around this time last year, he did a solid job of giving the Longhorns life when Max Grubbs did not have the best outing to close out the first.

“There weren't too many balls hit hard, but it wasn't his normal stuff,” Schlossnagle said about Grubbs. “We'll give him a week to kind of catch his breath, and then we'll see him back out there. He's a really good pitcher. Big, big part of our future.”

After the fiery first, Bing tempered the Islanders' order, forcing them to ground out into a pair of double plays for fast innings. Bing’s only lapse came when he allowed a lead-off home run in the third inning, but it would prove to be Texas A&M Corpus Christi's final run until the last inning.

“Bing did a nice job throwing strikes, kind of settling the storm a little bit,” Schlossnagle said.

In the final two innings, with the massive lead secured, Thomas Burns was efficient with a three-up, three-down inning with a pair of strikeouts.

Cal Higgins replaced Burns in the ninth and picked up two strikeouts, but was pulled in favor of Cody Howard to get the last out after he allowed back-to-back base hits and a run to pass through.

Texas will face No. 11 Alabama on Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT at UFCU Disch-Falk Field in Austin, Texas.

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