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Feb. 26, 2013

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AUSTIN, Texas - The Sam Houston State Bearkats (4-4) beat the NR/No. 22 Texas Longhorns, 5-3, in non-conference action Tuesday night behind strong outings from three different pitchers at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Tyler Eppler (1-0) picked up the win for the Bearkats, pitching 5 2/3 innings and allowing two runs on four hits. Logan Boyd pitched two innings and allowed one run while Jason Simms pitched the final 1 1/3 innings for his first save of the season.

Cameron Cox (0-1) pitched four innings for Texas (6-2) and allowed three runs on three hits. Offensively, Mark Payton continued his hot start, going 3-for-4 with a triple one RBI. Ben Johnson was 1-for-2 with one run scored.

The Bearkats got on the board first in the top of the second inning. Hayden Simerly led the off the inning with a double to right field and was brought home on a triple by Ryan O'Hearn. Kevin Miller followed with an RBI groundout to score O'Hearn, giving the Bearkats a 2-0 lead.

The lead increased to 3-0 in the fourth inning on a solo home run by first baseman Spence Rahm.

Texas got to Eppler and started to rally in the bottom of the sixth inning. Johnson picked up his first career hit on a single to left field and then scored on a triple by Matt Moynihan. Taylor Stell followed with an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 4-2. Sam Houston State went to the bullpen and brought in Boyd, who retired C.J Hinojosa on a fly out to right.

The Bearkats added two unearned runs in the seventh off Travis Duke. Colt Atwood delivered an RBI single and scored later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Anthony Azar.

In the bottom of the eighth, Mark Payton tripled home pinch-runner Weston Hall to cut the lead to 5-3. The Longhorns could not cut into the deficit against Simms, who retired all four batters he faced.

Texas travels to No. 15/6 Stanford this weekend. Friday's game starts at 7:30 p.m. Central with a 3 p.m. start on Saturday and Sunday. All three games will be carried live on AM 1300 The Zone. Gametracker live stats will be be available on TexasSports.com with live Twitter updates @Texas_Baseball.

Notes: Jeremy Montalbano made his first career start for Texas, catching all nine innings...freshman outfielder Ben Johnson picked up his first career hit in the sixth inning...Mark Payton is now hitting .536 (15-for-28) through eight games with 11 RBI, two doubles and two triples...the Longhorns' 6-2 start matches the best start through eight games since the 2009 team started 11-0 (2010 team also started 6-2)...Sam Houston State snapped an 11-game losing streak to Texas, dating back to May 14, 2000.

SHSU	 020-100-200---5-7-0
TEXAS	 000-002-010---3-7-1
Records: Texas (6-2), Sam Houston State (4-4)
WP - Eppler (1-0)   LP - Cox (0-1)   S - Simms (1)
T - 2:27   ATT - 4,987
Eppler, Boyd (6), Simms (8) and Azar.
Cox, Urban (5), Duke (6), T. Marlow (7), Hollingsworth (9) and Montalbano. 

Post-Game Quotes

Texas head coach Augie Garrido
On message to team after a game like today: What are we going to learn from this? We have a commitment to learn from things that don't go so well. It's a difficult game for sure. One of the things that we need to figure out is what was our commitment to compete inning by inning, pitch by pitch, or did we fall victim to a Tuesday opponent and were we flat and did we--but it has been two pitchers in a row now that have had off-speed stuff that have given us trouble. So we haven't been able to make the adjustments to the off-speed breaking ball and change-up. It is affecting our confidence and focus at the plate. We are swinging at more bad pitches now than we did earlier in the season. It is something they have to learn from. They have to learn to adjust to zones and that is something that (assistant coach) Tommy Nicholson and (volunteer assistant) Ryan Russ will work out with them. There wasn't much difference in the game. There wasn't much separation. It is a good example of parity in baseball and how attitude plays a key part. We played them in the fall and beat them in the fall. Now this team is determined and maybe our team wasn't as determined but we didn't know that. That is up to them to decide, to talk about, and to straighten out. I think we do have the right guys and I think they will get it figured out. Sometimes you get outplayed. It is so hard to control scoring because hitting plays such a key role in it all. They didn't walk anybody, they didn't hit anybody, they didn't give us any bases so they did well.

On thoughts about getting back on track with Stanford: Well, yeah I think that we would expect our team to be motivated. Now, if that was the problem for tonight, I think they played a better game than we did. It was about the same game for both sides. We may have walked one or two more, we gave them a baseball that Codey McElroy didn't catch--hit or error isn't as important that started that rally. Everything isn't explainable. If we play with a totally different intensity at Stanford then it was because we weren't in the right frame of mind here tonight.

Junior outfielder Mark Payton
On what the team learned after this game: These are the games that last year hurt us in the long run and you can't take any game lightly no matter who you are playing. These Tuesday games really do mean something and every game does matter. You can't go out any day and just because you are wearing a Texas jersey means you are going to win. I think earlier in the game we might've not been ready, but later in the game we showed what we can do. It is just the mentality of this team is that we are in the mode where you just hate to lose. If we carry that early innings, middle innings, and later innings I think we will be fine.

On thoughts that team was looking too far ahead to Stanford: That could've been on a couple people's minds, but I think as a team as a whole we are here every day... just one pitch at a time. Today it was one pitch against Sam Houston State. We are now looking forward to Stanford and we are going to have a fresh mind and some more motivation to get back after them.