College Baseball in Texas
Jose Gonzalez of Spring, Texas started his season with the Texas State Bobcats red hot in a sweep of Northwestern.
The state of Texas is very rich in baseball history and tradition from the high school ranks, college to Major League Baseball. The University of Texas is tied for 2nd place all-time in National Championships with six. The state of Texas has the sixth most players in the MLB Hall of Fame with 16 from Ernie Banks, Eddie Matthews, Frank Robinson, Joe Morgan, Nolan Ryan and most recent Greg Maddux. That also includes three players from the Negro League: Louis Santop, Biz Mackey & Andy Cooper. There’s nothing we here at DDSN love more than to showcase the Lone Star State and its baseball will be no different. There are great college baseball teams to cover, discuss and highlight. We’ll go ahead and start with recapping the weekend. We will also be covering the rest of the country and sharing analysis and wagering insight to help those that also bet college baseball like we do. The Texas series will be more in depth and then we’ll go over the best betting opportunities from across the country. Hopefully yall enjoy the coverage!
Texas State Bobcats: Next game 2/24/23 vs. Oral Roberts
The Bobcats from San Marcos start the season 3-0 largely due to the bats from Jose Gonzales from Spring, TX and Cade Manning of Southlake, TX. Gonzalez is one of the best hitters in the country after the first weekend as he hit .700 with 2 2B, 2 HR, 4 BB, 1 SB, 4 R & 9 RBI. One game in and Gonzalez has set the bar for this Bobcat offense and not far behind is Manning. Cade Manning did not start game 1 but the 2 games he did start he hit .800 with 1 2B, 1 3B, 4 BB, 5 R without an RBI. The Bobcats schedule really ramps up come March 1st so we will be keeping an eye out on Texas State who is very close to being ranked in the 24 Pack rankings.
#9 Texas Tech Red Raiders: Next game 2/24/23 vs. Western Illinois
The Red Raiders had an impressive four game sweep on the Gonzaga Bulldogs to open up the season. The Texas Tech offense exploded on some solid pitching especially sophomore from Sour Lake, TX, Gavin Kash hitting .692, 1.953 OPS with 2 3B, 4 BB, 1 HR & 8 RBI. The whole Tech offense deserves to be highlighted for what they accomplished this weekend. It shot the Red Raiders into the top 10 of the DDSN 24 Pack. It’s early but this offense is ready to do some damage this season.
#5 TCU Horned Frogs: Next game 2/22/23 vs. UT Arlington
I would say TCU had the strongest outing of the weekend across the country in the College Baseball Showdown in Arlington, TX. TCU defeated #6 Vanderbilt, #12 Arkansas but loss the finale against Missouri. TCU was led by top prospect Brayden Taylor and the clutch hitting from Elijah Nunez from Arlington. After UT Arlington the Horned Frogs will host the Florida State Seminoles in what should be a great series. I do not have the exact stat but TCU did the majority of its scoring with 2 outs in clutch fashion.
#10 Texas A&M Aggies: Next game 2/21/23 vs. Lamar
The Aggies offense was nothing special over the weekend in its sweep of Seattle University. The Aggies were led by its pitching and it started with RHP Nathan Dettmer from San Antonio, TX who pitched 4.2 shutout innings with 8 strikeouts. Impressive. Texas A&M has what one would call a very soft schedule to begin the season. Lamar will come into the game undefeated. The Aggie bats will need to wake up before the Shriner’s Children’s College Classic if it has hope to compete in the SEC.
UTSA Roadrunners: Next game 2/22/23 vs. Houston
The Roadrunners won its first two games against the Tarleton Texans before dropping the rubber match in extra innings. UTSA was “cheated” out of an NCAA Tournament invitation last year but the NCAA will justify leaving out UTSA because the last invitation went to Ole Miss, the 2022 National Champions. Dallas Baptist on the other hand did not deserve a bid. I mention that because UTSA will be on a revenge tour and they will need to prove it this season. Senior from Corpus Christi, TX, Antonio Valdez led the Roadrunners this weekend hitting .417 with 1 2B, 2 BB, 2 R & 2 RBI. Valdez was the most consistent against Tarleton State. Huge matchup on deck vs. the Houston Cougars.
Texas Longhorns: 2/21/23 vs. Corpus Christi A&M
The Longhorns are being highlighted due to its terrible start to the season. The Longhorns loss all three games in the College Baseball Showdown. The lone bright spot was ace SP Lucas Gordon who pitched 5 shutout innings against Arkansas only allowing 2 H, 1 BB with 6 strikeouts. In its 3rd game vs. Vanderbilt the Longhorns loss 12 to 2 thanks to 5 (!) errors. SS Cade O’Hara committed 2 errors, 2B Jayden Duplantier committed 2 errors and Catcher Garrett Guillemette committed 1. Those are three positions where errors cannot happen! UT allowed 8 unearned errors. That is unheard of. The middle infielders mentioned above are freshman so in their first big tournament they had some issues - ok I can give them a pass. Except, this is the University of Texas, which prides itself on defense and it should not have 8 unearned runs. Ever. Texas did lose a lot of talent from last season and as I look at the schedule … it’s stacked. These young Longhorns will need to grow up fast or it will indeed be a long season in Austin. I’m waiting for a betting line because I will be taking a shot with Corpus Christi A&M. The Islanders will be bringing a veteran team that has defeated the Longhorns in 2019.
Other highlighted games:
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