Trying to Save the Season With No Hits

From the beginning of the season the Longhorns looked a little bit off. While they were ranked in the top 25 nationally and had a solid record, the Horns were playing inconsistent, uninspired baseball and didn't look promising going into conference play. The lackluster play finally turned into a full blown disaster as the Longhorns have been 11-11 since March 28th and have a un-Longhorn-esqe 10-11 conference record.

What was the absolute low point? Probably losing to UT-Arlington and UT-San Antonio during that 22-game stretch has to be near the top. A 3-6 record at home during conference play has been a point of embarrassment, but the worst moment probably goes to that 31-12 drumming at the hands of Missouri. (Yes, that's a baseball score.)

What has been the problem? Well the hitting hasn't been spectacular, but a .284/24/128 isn't far off 2007's .302 average during conference play. The defense has certainly been underwhelming, with 24 errors in 21 games. But one would definitely need to look at the pitching to find the source of the Longhorn's problems. A 6.34 team ERA in conference play is absolutely atrocious, especially compared to last year's 3.19 mark in conference play.

The biggest problem has been the Longhorns inability to find starting pitching. Though the entire staff hasn't exactly been anything other than a big problem. The ace of the staff, Austin Wood has been 1-1 with a 7.26 ERA in conference play, while Riley Boening (7.13) and Kenn Kasparek (6.16) haven't faired much better against the Big XII. Augie Garrido has been trying everything as Cole Green, Chance Ruffin, and Brandon Workman (7.01) have gotten chances to start as well. Green (2.81) and Ruffin (2.93) have been working out of the pen mostly, but the two freshman might have to be what carries this team down the stretch.

The Longhorns might be trying to turn the corner, as Kenn Kasparek threw a complete game no-hitter against Texas State yesterday, but the Longhorns will need to greatly improve as a staff if they hope to turn this season around. Texas has 7 games left and will need to show well to even hope for an at large birth into the NCAA Tournament. The way this season has been going, the safest bet looks to be that that Longhorns will be at home this post season. Which might not be a bad thing, as bad of a disaster as this season has been. But, there is still a hope if the Longhorns can sweep the Baylor (26-20) series and take that momentum into their three game season finale against #6 Texas A&M (38-7). Taking two out of three from the Aggies would put the Horns in good shape with a (33-19)(16-12) mark, and riding great momentum.

But, that is highly optimistic. It might be better off to hope that the Aggies don't drop 31 runs on us, and let this season ride off slowly into the sunset and out of our collective memory

Preseason Rankings: Always Accurate

At least for Texas, Spring should be here in about 3 days, last about 5 days, then on to summer. So obviously it's time for several outlets to be releasing their 2008 College Baseball Pre-season Rankings. Texas is ranked in every poll going as high as #6 in the NCBWA, and #8 in the Collegiate Baseball poll, and as low as #16 in the Baseball America poll. But what does Baseball America know?

Texas fell short of the World Series last year as their achilles heel of pitching was the same has it had been all season, and the bats couldn't come through in the clutch. This season, many of the bats are gone as Texas will have three slots to fill in the infield. All of which could be filled by transfers. Michael Torres (Fresno State), David Hernandez (Florida State), and Brandon Belt (San Jacento JC) all are front runners to be on the opening day lineup. But not all of the bats are gone as Texas returns their headlining juniors of 2007 NCAA Home Run Champ Kyle Russell (.335/28/71) and Jordan Danks (.332/4/38). However, with some of the other bats moved on, the lineup could more closely resemble the traditional Augie small ball lineups.

The pitching staff for the Longhorns underachieved all of last season, as Texas struggled with consistency from their starting rotation and depth in their bullpen. Texas will get to start mostly from scratch as Austin Wood (8-1/3.15) is the only reliable pitching arm returning from 2007. However, Texas has an infux of talent coming into the pitching staff in 2008. Starting with the return from injury of Kenn Kasparek, the 6-10 starter who pitched well in the postseason in 2006. Also coming back will be Randy Boening who missed all of 2007 as well. Texas also welcomes in transfers from Florida State, Oral Roberts, and San Jacento JC, as well as 6 freshman arms. With so many pitchers to choose from, hopefully Augie will be able to find enough arms to get Texas back as one of the premier pitching teams in the country.