AUSTIN, Texas — No. 1 Texas Baseball pitched an Opening Day shutout, beating Rice 7-0 on Friday night at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The Longhorns and Owls will square off again on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.
Pete Hansen gave the Longhorns a quality start, pitching six shutout innings with eight strikeouts. He allowed only three hits and one walk in the game.
Silas Ardoin had a great all-around game, going 3-for-4 with a homer, a double and three RBI. He also gunned down his first attempted base stealer of the season.Austin Todd made his sixth-consecutive Opening Day start for the Longhorns and went 1-for-3 with a run scored.
The Longhorns got on the board in the first inning after Eric Kennedy lined a one-out triple into right-center field and Ivan Melendez drove him in with an RBI groundout.
Ardoin made the lead 2-0 in the second inning with his solo homer to left field.
Texas added three more runs in the bottom of the fourth inning on two hits and an error. Ardoin and Todd both singled to put two runners on. Skyler Messinger put down a sacrifice bunt that was thrown away, allowing Ardoin to score. A wild pitch and a sacrifice fly Dylan Campbell made the score 5-0.
Ardoin’s big game continued in the fifth, adding two more runs to the lead with a two-run double to left field. He drove in Melendez and Daly to make the lead 7-0.
Travis Sthele made his Texas debut out of the bullpen, pitching two scoreless innings with one strikeout. Jared Southard finished off the game with a scoreless ninth inning and two strikeouts.
Tristan Stevens will get the start in Game 2 of the series and will face Rice starting pitcher Brandon Deskins.