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submitted Today, 09:10 PM in Texas Longhorns Baseball By Matt Cotcher @mlcotcher On both Friday and Saturday nights, games were cancelled at Disch Falk Field. The inclement weather held off long enough on Sunday for the San Diego Toreros and Texas Longhorns to squeeze in a doubleheader in an effort to make up for the missed games. In retrospect, the Horns might be wishing the weather had persisted. San Diego won Game 1, a 7-inning tilt, by a score of 3-1. The Toreros then dismissed the Longhorns in Game 2, 6-1. Even if the weather or all the time spent in the dugout on Friday and Saturday nights played a factor, left fielder Ben Johnson was having none of that, saying, “We’re not here to make excuses.” Adding to his argument, Johnson mentioned that those factors were the same for both San Diego and Texas. Game 1: San Diego 3 – Texas 1 After staking themselves to a quick 1-0 lead in the opening frame, the Longhorns failed to produce anything else on offense, falling 3-1 in Game 1. The Toreros struck for a pair of runs in the top of the 2nd and tacked on a third run in the 5th inning. Colin Shaw continued his torrid pace with another double in the bottom of the first inning, but that was the Horns' only hit of the game. Parker French took the loss and fell to 1-1 on the season. Kirby Bellow pitched a solid 2.2 frames of relief. David Hill earned the win for USD by going 6 innings and only allowing the double by Shaw. Gary Cornish got the save, retiring the last two batters. Game 2: San Diego 6 – Texas 1 The Longhorns and Toreros battled through eight scoreless innings to start the game, before San Diego broke through with a 6-run rally in the top of the 9th frame. Texas loaded the bases twice in the home half of the inning, but could not capitalize and fell, 6-1. Starting pitcher Josh Sawyer (4.0 IP) and Kacy Clemens (2.2 IP) combined to open the first six and two-thirds innings by limiting USD to four total hits and five strikeouts. The Torero’s starter, PJ Conlon, matched their effort, going 6.0 innings and allowing just three hits and five strikeouts. USD’s six-run 9th inning came via persistent offense and a lapse on defense by Texas. The Horns’ lone run came off a Ben Johnson sacrifice fly. Texas’ right fielder was the only Longhorn with multiple hits. WEEKEND TRENDS This season Texas was dominating opponents in the late innings, outscoring opponents 35-2 from the seventh inning on. In Game 2 on Sunday they were outscored 6-1 in the ninth frame. In game 1, Collin Shaw added to his nation-leading double total, bring it to ten on the year. After shaky starts to their college pitching careers at Rice, Josh Sawyer and Kacy Clemens have settled nicely for Skip Johnson. Sawyer has 9 shutout innings over his last two starts, and Clemens has 7.2. Ben Johnson had an 11-game hit streak broken with an 0-for-3 game in the first contest of the day. POST GAME REACTION Augie Garrido: “From my point of view, it gets down to one most important thing – I think we played with a lack of discipline. The first game, we made errors defensively that are uncharacteristic for us – didn’t get a great jump on a couple of balls; threw ‘em away. We gave them extra bases and extra outs in that game. In the second game, in the seventh inning we had a lack of discipline to the offense from this point of view…for me this is where it all finally gets down to – the lack of discipline was based on hitting. The lack of discipline in the seventh inning, went to 3-2 on two hitters, with a runner already walked on first, and both hitters swung at balls outside the strike zone. Instead of the bases loaded and one out, we were picking up our gloves and going out in the field. In the eighth inning it wasn’t about 3-2, but it was still about strikeouts on balls outside the strike zone. We consistently did that throughout the two games – especially with runners in scoring position." Augie Garrido on the reason for the offense’s lack of discipline: “So what’s that mean? We’re trying too hard. We’re trying to get the run in, rather than taking a quality at bat. We’re trying to do more than we’re capable of doing. We’re thinking about results rather than the process itself. It’s early in the year, but that’s what I talked to them about.” On if he was surprised by the games, Augie Garrido: “I think we had six innings in the second game at Rice where we were that flat. We had another, four innings I guess, in the mid-week game, Pan American this week, and that's about it – in the rest we've been highly competitive. Maybe we just had too much time in the locker room? You know, the cancellations…those things are hard to figure. But the truth of the matter is that I firmly believe it was about discipline – to the fundamentals of the game. The fundamentals of the game are basically the weapons of war. they are the weapons you use to get the outs on time, they are the weapons you use to not give them extra bases. Offensively you have to use all four of the games: the hitting game, the bunting game, the bat control game and the base-running game. It all got back to wanting to get a hit and they again tried and when they tried they failed, because you always do. Lack of discipline – they couldn't stay with their plan, they couldn't stay with their hitting routine. That's not easy to do." Augie Garrido on the pressure of the game: "I watch a lot of PGA Golf. No matter what, those golfers, who all have personal psychologists and have been playing since they were 8 years old, they all get on the 18th and you can see them fall apart from time to time. It’s hard, man. It’s really challenging when you allow that pressure to build up on you and it starts working on your nerves." On how the team learns from these losses, Augie Garrido: “We didn't apply the discipline to the fundamentals of the game and that is a common problem. You didn't create that; the champion is the one that overcomes that. How do we get better from it? That is honestly what we will work on doing. First of all, you have to make them aware of it; secondly you have to put them in situations in practice, force them to practice at a level that is highly competitive, and get them to perform in an environment that you create that simulates as accurately as you can to a game. Because the ones that want to correct that, they aren't feeling great about themselves right now. It happened, they didn't want it to happen, they don't want it to happen again. I have to count on that and I do count on that. There is leadership in that locker room. There are great kids in that locker room. They will turn it around.” On how losses will affect the team, Augie Garrido: “Maybe it [the reason] is all the winning. We know in hindsight last year, that’s what happened. We went from No. 6 in the nation and 1st in the conference to 5th in the conference and out of the Top 25. We got really satisfied with who we were and who we thought we were, then the other teams come in here. They were hungry; they fought like crazy; and they beat us. It took us a long while to recover. What happened from that? That’s how we made the run in Omaha. If it hadn’t been for those difficulties, we wouldn’t have toughened up. We wouldn’t have gotten better. We wouldn’t have made it to where we were. I don’t want you to feel like I think this is a disaster or something. It isn’t – it’s an experience.” Parker French: “It wasn’t one of the best days we’ve had as a team, collectively. But that’s why it’s a long season – we learn from the mistakes we made today and move on from them; get ready for next week and Stanford.” On what days like today teaches the team, Parker French: “It teaches a little bit of humility. It all humbles you when you come out and don’t play so well, especially at home. But also at the same time, you can’t read too much into it. Gotta get back out here tomorrow and get back after it. Get better at those fundamental things – that we weren’t good at today.” Ben Johnson: “We were swinging at some balls outside the zone. Maybe a little bit over-competing. You know, it shouldn’t happen overall. We’re competitive guys – I think we were just a little too antsy today and things just didn’t go our way.” On why they were antsy, Ben Johnson: “It might have been the weather and the long wait. We’re not gonna make excuses about that. That’s how it was for both teams. They had to wait for two days to play as well. So we’re not gonna make excuses about that. We’ve just got to learn from it, move on, and get ready for Stanford.”

#6 Texas opens the 2015 season with a 4-game series against the #13 Rice Owls today (Friday, February 13th) at Rice. Venue: Reckling Park Location: Houston, TX All-time Series: Texas leads Rice, 223-54-2 Projected starting pitchers: FRIDAY (6:00 pm start time) (Texas) Parker French vs. (Rice) Kevin McCanna Related articles: Season Preview Part I - Returning Standouts (team defense and starters) - http://t.co/GEhtLihyZu Season Preview Part II - Plate Production (a look at the Texas offense) - http://t.co/lgHsafBCr2 Season Preview Part III - Armed and Ready (pitching) - http://t.co/pADkgXJw2i