By Steve Habel – Horns Illustrated Associate Editor
When Nathan Thornhill and Mark Payton eschewed professional careers and decided to return for their senior seasons at Texas, there was a plan in mind – to help the Longhorns reach the lofty heights the program expects from its team each year.
Those two players, and a whole lot of their teammates, continued to make the plays and the pitches and produce the hits and runs that lead to success during a 4-2 win over Houston on Friday afternoon in the opening game of the NCAA Austin Super Regional before a sunbaked crowd of 7,385 at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
Texas (42-19) is now one victory away from [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]its 35th trip to the College World Series in Omaha. Game two of the series is Saturday; if Houston can find a way to win, there will be a third game on Sunday.
Thornhill, who’s been the Horns’ best pitcher during the second half of the season, worked seven strong innings, allowing just two runs and seven singles while striking out three and walking only one.
His “pitch-to-the-mitt-and-hit-it-if-you-can” strategy, which has now produced eight wins in 10 decisions in 2014, was helped by an early cushion provided by Payton’s two-run home run in the top of the first.
“I felt great in the bullpen warming up before the game, but I felt even better when I knew we were up 2-0 before I even had to take the mound,” Thornhill said. “I was able to work the strike zone and let my defense help me. It was just a matter of doing my job and everyone else doing theirs, too.”
Houston coach Todd Whitting said his team had its chances to beat Thornhill but could never come up with the needed, timely hit.
“We knew Thornhill has going to pound the strike zone, but he had three pitches working for him and just could never get enough going,” Whitting said. “We had some opportunities, but not too many.”
John Curtiss took over for Thornhill in the eighth and allowed just one hit in two innings of work to earn his ninth save of the season. He has not been scored upon, and has allowed just that one single, in five innings in the NCAA tournament.
Payton worked Houston starting pitcher and loser Jake Lemoine (6-8) for an eight-pitch at bat that ended when he clubbed a two-run home run over the right field fence with Ben Johnson aboard.
It was just the second home run of the year for Payton (his first at Disch-Falk Field), and the hit extended his streak of games reaching base to 100. Payton led the Horns’ 11-hit attack with three hits, while C.J Hinojosa added two. Johnson scored twice for Texas.
In the fourth inning, Texas’ Madison Carter pushed the lead to 3-0 when he came home from third on a throwing error by Houston second baseman Josh Vidales as he tried to turn a double play. Vidales had to deal with a hard slide by UT’s C.J Hinojosa near the bag, but really had no chance to throw out the speedy Colin Shaw on the play.
The Horns got aggressive in the fifth to play add-on. Johnson walked and stole second base with one out. He later scored on a two-out single by Tres Barrera.
The Cougars (48-17) cut the Texas lead in half in the bottom of the fifth. Houston got three consecutive singles – the third, by Vidales, hit the first base bag – to allow Justin Montemayor to score and to put runners on the corners with none out. Thornhill then enticed a comebacker to the mound from Caleb Barker that he turned into a double play, trading a run for two outs in the process.
Houston left nine runners on base in the loss, including two in scoring position, and had another chance to score in the seventh when it placed two runners on with two outs. But Thornhill retired Barker on a first-pitch flyout to centerfield and turned the game over to Curtiss, who was nearly perfect for the second straight outing.
Vidales had three of the Cougars’ eight hits and Frankie Ratcliff added two hits for Houston.
The Longhorns are team built for the position in which they now find themselves – on the brink of chance to play for the national championship with their early-season ace, righthander Parker French, going to the mound for game two.
“As long as we continue to do the things that have brought us this far, I feel very good about our chances,” Texas coach Augie Garrido said. “These players are driving the bus now. How they respond to what happened today and how they carry it over to the next game will decide how far we can go.”
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