The Horns never seem to have much luck opening their season against California teams. They were swept at San Diego to open 2006 and dropped two of three to the Toreros last weekend at the Dell Diamond. This weekend No. 7 Texas (2-2) travels to Snoop Dogg country, hoping for better luck in the LBC for a three-game set with the No. 30 Long Beach State 49ers (2-1). The bats, which deserted them in Sunday’s 4-1 loss in the rubber game with San Diego, woke up in Tuesday’s 9-4 pounding of UT-Arlington. Kyle Russell led the way, going three-for-three with two runs scored, a home run, and three RBIs. As per usual for Augie Garrido clubs, they’re fast, swiping a whopping nine bases Tuesday, and smart, matching the Mavericks’ four errors with four sacrifices. Senior middle reliever Joseph Krebs has shown early promise with a 1.42 ERA in six innings pitched, but an overall team mark of 4.75 – exactly .01 lower than their opponents – will hardly punch their ticket to the College World Series, where they haven’t been since winning it all in 2005. Game times are 8:30pm tonight, 4pm Saturday, and 3pm Sunday; all three games can be heard on 1300AM. Texas returns to their temporary home in Round Rock Tuesday for a 2:30pm tilt versus UT-Pan American.
This article appears in February 9 • 2007.