A pitching duel at UFCU Disch-Falk Field Thursday night wound up being unkind to No. 23 Texas.

The Longhorns got a tremendous starting effort from freshman Nolan Kingham and an equally impressive outing from a bullpen that kept Texas in the game against Stanford. Neither factors were enough to lift the Longhorns to a win as Stanford took advantage of a pair of Texas errors in the 12th inning to claim a 1-0 victory in the first game of a four-game series.

Here are a few thoughts on the series opener between the Longhorns (2-2) and the Cardinal (4-1):

-- Augie Garrido usually mentions any time Texas gets ready to face Stanford that the Cardinal pitchers are a tremendous challenge. The reason being is that the Stanford arms, much like any time the Longhorns face a team from the Pac-12 region, prefer to slow the game down and rely on a certain level of pacing to throw off the timing of the opposing hitters.

The result was Texas having a lot of swings and misses. Of Texas’ 18 strikeouts as a team (the Longhorns had 22 combined in three games against UNLV) 12 occured when swinging at a third strike.

-- Stanford’s pitching deserves a huge tip of the cap for Texas’ woes. Starter Kris Bubic went 4.1 innings, striking out seven Longhorns while allowing only two hits and two walks, but it was reliever Colton Hock (5.2 innings, 8 strikeouts, 3 hits, 3 walks) who befuddled Texas to a greater extent and shut down the Longhorn bats when it mattered most.

Hock worked out of a pair of jams in the later innings, including a bases loaded situation in the bottom of the ninth. He struck Ben Kennedy out swinging in what was one of Texas’ best chances to score on a night when the Longhorns and Cardinal combined to leave 24 men on base (12 each).

-- Texas’ pitchers were equally nasty for the most part. Kingham (4.2 innings, 2 hits, 3 walks), Blake Wellman (3 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk) and Chase Shugart (1.2 innings, 1 walk, 1 strikeout) combined for an impressive night on the bump for Skip Johnson’s talented group of freshmen arms.

-- The Longhorns committed only two errors on the night, but they came at a costly time. Jon Malmin, who was saddled with the loss, allowed a runner to reach after allowing a leadoff single in the top of the 12th as his throw to first following a sacrifice bunt attempt pulled Kacy Clemens off of the bag.

Two batters later, with the bases loaded and one out, Kody Clemens fielded a ground ball off of the bat of Mike Diekroeger at third base. He went to Joe Baker at second base for the first out but Baker was unable to get the ball cleanly out of his glove and was unable to turn the double play, allowing the only run of the game to cross the plate.

-- Baker was 1-for-5 in his 2016 debut. He’s been dealing with a lingering nerve issue in his arm, but it was a leg injury that kept him on the shelf for the UNLV series.

Kaleb Denny, the son of Lifetime Longhorn David Denny, made his Texas debut Thursday night. The recovery from a knee injury in high school has forced Denny to move to first base, where he got the start in the series opener.

Garrido said the daily drills at first base in practice won’t put near the strain on Denny’s knee as if he was playing in the outfield. Denny, a prolific high school hitter who will serve in the designated hitter role along with Tres Barrera and Michael Cantu, went 1-for-2 on the night before exiting.

-- After hitting well situationally against UNLV the Longhorns were awful against Stanford. Texas was 0-for-13 hitting with runners on base, 0-for-7 hitting with runners in scoring position and 3-for-15 hitting with two outs.