By Christian Corona
With the season on the line, Texas once again turned to Chad Hollingsworth.
And, once again, the sophomore right-hander was masterful. Hollingsworth held UC-Irvine to four hits over 8 1/3 shutout innings, striking out five without issuing a walk in the Longhorns’ season-extending 1-0 win over the Anteaters on Wednesday night.
Texas will take on Vanderbilt this Friday at 2 p.m., needing to beat the Commodores twice in as many days to advance to the College World Series championship.
Longhorns shortstop C.J Hinojosa delivered the [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]first home run in nine games at the CWS this year, a rocket over the bullpen behind left field in the seventh inning to give Texas a 1-0 lead.
Behind an excellent outing from senior right-hander Nathan Thornhill, the Longhorns led 1-0 into the eighth inning of their CWS opener last Saturday, also against the Anteaters. But they couldn’t hang on, as Taylor Sparks’ RBI triple triggered a three-run rally as UC-Irvine triumphed, 3-1.
After junior right-hander Parker French was similarly spectacular in a 4-1 win over Louisville on Monday to set up Wednesday’s clash with the Anteaters, Texas again had a 1-0 advantage in the eighth inning with Sparks at the plate and a runner base.
Only this time, Hollingsworth got Sparks to pop out to second baseman Brooks Marlow in foul territory for the second out of the inning before getting Chris Rabago to ground out and end the threat.
Duke struck Jonathan Munoz looking and got Grant Palmer to fly out to right to end the game and push Texas to 3-0 in elimination games this season. This year marks the 27th time that the Longhorns will be among the last four times standing at the CWS – four more times than any other school has even reached the CWS.
More than two weeks after tossing a complete-game, two-hitter in a winner-take-all, 4-1 victory over Texas A&M in the Houston Regional, Hollingsworth got the nod Wednesday against a UC-Irvine team that defeated Texas just four days ago. He was unable to go the distance Wednesday, allowing a leadoff single in the ninth and being replaced by left-hander Travis Duke with one out in the inning.
But Hollingsworth left to a standing ovation, throwing 75 of his 117 pitches for strikes and lowering his ERA to 1.15 this year. Hollingsworth allowed baserunners in seven of the nine innings he pitched but only allowed two Anteaters to venture into scoring position, neither of them reaching third base.
In two postseason starts – the only two starts of his career – Hollingsworth has posted a spotless 0.00 ERA in 17 1/3 innings and held opposing hitters to a .107 batting average.
Texas is 6-6 against Vanderbilt all-time, with the last time the squads met coming in the 2004 Super Regional in Austin, where the Longhorns swept the Commodores with 15-3 and 10-2 victories.
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