Longhorns Baseball Drop Season Opener To Mississippi State 8-3
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on last year's college baseball season, it had been almost a year since the Texas Longhorns baseball team last took the diamond in a competitive matchup.
Texas finished that season 14-3 but never got to take the field in conference play.
Now entering the 2021 season, the Longhorns carried a top-10 ranking into their season-opening matchup with the No. 7 Mississippi State Bulldogs at the College Baseball Showdown at Globe Life Field in Arlington.
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Unfortunately for Texas, things did not go as planned, as the Bulldogs took Texas to task in a 8-3 blowout decision.
Thanks to State's elite pitching staff, Most notably Christian MacLeod and Landon Sims, the Longhorns struggled to get their bats going on the offensive side, striking out a total of 18 times. Sims retired all 12 batters he faced on Saturday, 10 of which with strikeouts, including seven strikeouts in a row.
"MacLeod is one of the best strikeout left-handers in the country, and Sims was throwing the ball 93-96," Texas head coach David Pierce said after the game. "That really does make a difference when you haven’t swung the bat in a week and trying to face that quality of stuff.”
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Unlike the Horns, however, the heavily left-handed lineup for Mississippi State exploded out of the gate, taking a 5-0 lead in the fifth inning. The Bulldogs were able to coast from there, scoring three more runs over the final four innings en route to the 8-3 win.
The Longhorns will now move on to their next matchup at Globe Life Field on Sunday, where they will face No. 8 Arkansas at 7 pm CT. Tristan Stevens on the mound will be on the mound for Texas.
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