The second-ranked Texas Longhorns defeated the Texas State Bobcats 15-4 on Tuesday at Bobcat Ballpark, led by junior first baseman Casey Borba’s two home runs and five RBIs, to enter SEC play undefeated and the team’s best start since 2005.
After a slow start to the season, Borba, who has hit four of his five homers on the season in the past four games, blasted a three-run shot to center field in the third inning to make it 5-0, leaving Texas State’s outfielders with nothing to do but watch as the ball sailed 477 feet off Borba’s bat at 108 mph.
Borba hit a home run off a spinning changeup in the seventh inning that broke the Trackman and ended up rolling into the center of the softball field behind Bobcats Ballpark.
In the first inning, Borba finished 2-for-3 with the bases loaded and a walk, allowing three runs, two hits and a pitched hit in Texas’ second run.
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Texas added two more homers to its 15 hits, including freshman left fielder Anthony Parker Jr.’s two-run homer 409 feet to left-center in the fourth inning and redshirt senior third baseman Temo Becerra’s line drive in the ninth.
By the eighth inning, the Horns had put the game away completely with an RBI double from sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, a two-run single from senior right fielder Jayden Duplantier and an RBI double from redshirt senior designated hitter Josh Livingston.
Six Texas players posted multi-hit performances in a key effort by the team as a whole – the Longhorns went 6-for-14 (.429) with two outs, 8-for-23 (.348) with runners on and 7-for-17 (.412) with runners in scoring position.
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Despite leading 7-0 in the bottom of the fourth inning, the outcome became less certain when freshman right-hander Sam Cozart gave up a three-run home run in the bottom half of the inning, struck out four, walked the bases, hit a batter and gave up three hits in the fifth.
The lead seemed slimmer than the score indicated, as redshirt junior left-hander Ethan Walker walked two batters in 0.2 innings despite being able to pick up his first win of the season, while senior right-hander Max Grubbs also walked two batters and gave up an RBI double in his 1.1 innings of work.
Grubbs’ loss of command forced him to leave the game in the seventh inning in favor of graduate left-hander Cal Higgins, who has allowed four hits in Texas’ 3.1 innings so far. But Higgins was able to dominate the area, impressively striking out four in 2.1 innings.
After the Longhorns’ biggest win since an 11-0 victory over the Bobcats in Austin in 2008, Texas will return to UFCU’s Disch-Falk Field this weekend for SEC play against Ole Miss.
