Baseball falls, 5-4, to Tennessee Tech in first game of NCAA Super Regional

By Habeab Kurdi

AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Longhorns withstood the storm, but the UT bats lacked the thunder needed Saturday, as the Longhorns lost, 5-4, to Tennessee Tech in Game 1 of the NCAA Super Regional.

A sizzling hot day turned into a cool afternoon as showers touched down in the sixth inning, which proved to be a fateful frame for Texas. There were opportunities galore for the Longhorns, yet the squad was only able to muster five hits on the day — three of which came off the bat of first baseman Jake McKenzie.

In a game expected to have plenty of offense from two scorching-hot clubs, it was the [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]little things that eluded the Longhorns and let a game they started with momentum slip out of their grasp home at Disch-Falk Field to fall behind in the three-game series.

“We just didn’t execute the short game today, we left runners at first and second and then we left runners at first with nobody out,” head coach David Pierce said following the game. “Good thing is, we have two more games.”

Those two games aren’t assured though, and the Longhorns will need to tighten up those small things by not playing tight heading into Game 2 Sunday back at Disch-Falk Field if they want to ensure the season keeps going to a Game 3 Monday. A Texas team that seemed to lose its looseness early on started to play a little uptight and couldn’t wiggle free once Tennessee Tech took the momentum.

“You always want to try and win every inning. They can put some runs on the board, but we have to go back and do our thing at the box,” second baseman Kody Clemens said. “We just didn’t execute and didn’t do our job today.”

Pierce isn’t one to pull his team aside after a game, but following this loss the Longhorn coach talked to his team to make sure they were on the same page and ready to regroup for Game 2.

“We have an opportunity to still go in there and win the game tomorrow, and then take it to a Game 3. So that’s the plan right now: be ready to go — and we will be,” he said. “I felt like we had a little frustration today, a couple guys were a little tight, but overall we performed well.”

The little things added up as the Longhorns struck out looking five times, couldn’t get a bunt down in a crucial situation and went 0-for-11 with runners on base, with the only runs coming on three sacrifice flies. The Golden Eagles wisely pitched around Clemens, who had a towering solo home run in the third inning in his only official at-bat, and walked in his other three plate appearances.

“I’m going to take the pitches that they give me,” Clemens said. “The next guy up is just as important. I have faith in everybody else’s bat in the lineup.”

“We’ve handled adversity all year, so this is no different,” McKenzie added. “We lose Game 1, (but) that’s why we play a three-game series, so we’re not worried about it.”

The Golden Eagles continue to show Tennessee Tech is a big-time team this season, and a relentless attack of liners and slicing hits added up. Astoundingly, they  featured an entire starting nine of hitters batting over .300, and they had 25 at-bats with a runner on base in the game, a staggering amount that left the Longhorns lucky to just have allowed five runs. Though the Golden Eagles only scored five, they were only 3-for-13 with runners in scoring position and left 12 runners on base.

“It’s an exciting, exhausting inning-by-inning, but just don’t get too low or too high,” Clemens said. “I felt we got a little frustrated today.”

Texas starting pitcher Nolan Kingham, who had a cyst removed and drained earlier in the week, battled through 4-2/3 innings, but the Golden Eagles’ patience was too much. Kingham had his fastball working early, but once Tech adjusted to that he went to a biting change-up in his off-speed repertoire and started getting swings and misses that way. Again, Tennessee Tech adjusted and pitches that looked sharp were met with the barrel of the bat.

“They’re a very good offensive team and they make good adjustments,” Pierce said. “You have to continue to mix them, and change your patterns, and we did a good job on that for the most part.”

Texas was ahead, 3-2, after four innings when Kingham helped escape a jam on his own. With two-on and two-out, Kingham snared a ball hit back to the mound by John Ham and stared down the runner for a moment before tossing the ball to first base for the third out. Though it was a big moment for Texas at the time, it turned out to be an even bigger moment for the Golden Eagles as they took the slight personally, especially cleanup hitter Chase Chambers. In the top of the fifth, Tennessee Tech took the lead for good on another close play that narrowly went its way. With two on, Chambers rocked a deep fly ball to right-center and it looked as if Texas center fielder Tate Shaw had a bead on the ball, racing all the way to the warning track in time to reel in the fly. However, he seemed to crash into the wall a split second before the ball got to his glove and it fell in for a two-run double to put the Golden Eagles up, 5-3.

“I just don’t know if he lost his bearings, or where the ball was but like I said I’ve seen him make that play,” Pierce said.

Chambers said he and his team were amped up after feeling disrespected on the groundout an inning earlier.

“I was pretty fired up,” after hitting the double, Chambers said. “It’s a big situation and I kind of got caught up in the situation. It’s baseball, we’re all competitors, it happens. It’s just part of the game.”

It was up to the bats after that as the Texas pitchers didn’t allow another run the rest of the way with Kamron Fields, Josh Sawyer and Parker Joe Robinson combining to throw 4-1/3 scoreless innings. Robinson pitched a dandy in the eighth inning after coming on with the bases loaded and one out, getting a strikeout and a grounder back to the mound to keep the game close.

“The performance Parker Joe did is … we talk about it on the mound when he’s coming in — it’s like Houdini coming in, and he’s been doing it all year,” Pierce said. “Just a tremendous job to keep us in the game and keep it a one-run deficit.”

Trailing, 5-3, in the bottom of the sixth, Clemens walked to lead off the inning. Zach Zubia followed with a second straight four-pitch walk to put two on with none out, prompting a call to the bullpen. Though it was early in the game still, in came Golden Eagles closer Ethan Roberts to try and escape the mess.

Texas was in luck, as its No. 5 hitter Masen Hibbeler came to the plate to face Roberts. Hibbeler struck out, stifling the Longhorns’ momentum gained from the beginning of the inning. Roberts honed in and struck out the next two hitters as well, leaving runners stranded

“It looked like we had some pitches to hit and we just didn’t handle them, and then we got two strikes, that’s when you have to see the ball a little deeper,” Pierce said. “That’s when you have to shorten it up and relax a little bit. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that today.”

McKenzie was the lone Longhorn to get to Roberts, who pitched four innings and only allowed a hit and one walk. Playing through a downpour, the senior first baseman roped a double into the right-centerfield gap in the seventh inning, and he nearly had more as the ball quickly scooted into the gap but center fielder Alex Junior raced over and cut it off before it got to the wall. That brought up leadoff hitter David Hamilton, who put the bat down as if to bunt but pulled back at the last second as Roberts rifled a wild pitch, letting McKenzie move up to third base. Hamilton promptly lofted the ball to left-centerfield for a sacrifice RBI, moving Texas within one run at 5-4.

After holding the Golden Eagles scoreless in the eighth, Clemens walked once again to start the bottom of the frame for Texas. Just as it seemed the team would have one more rally in them, Roberts got the next three hitters in order on just eight pitches, then retired the side in order in the ninth.

Game 2 starts at 2 p.m. Sunday back at Disch-Falk Field.

“We’re all locking in, we’ve been preparing all week for this so we know what we’re doing,” McKenzie said.

[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]