The Longhorns’ baseball season mimicked a roller coaster in 2012, taking fans to extreme highs before pushing them over the edge. Craig Way sat in the front seat for the entire ride, providing play-by-play action on AM 1300 The Zone 103.1 FM and the Longhorn Radio Network. Horns Illustrated caught up with Way to capture his thoughts on this year’s team, along with his top five picks for this season’s top five games.
5. No. 21 Texas 11, No. 5 Rice 8 — Friday, March 2
The Longhorns played against a top-10 ranked team — one that maintained that position all season. The game offered a way for Texas to show they could get the bats going against a good team, especially coming off of some…[s2If current_user_is(s2member_level2)] offensive struggles. Stanford swept them. They lost a midweek game to UT Arlington. They struggled to score two runs against Houston Baptist the prior week’s game. The Longhorns’ rally almost came from nowhere against the Owls. They had to out-slug them to win, and they did just that. In the top of the fifth, they scored six runs. The team ended up losing the next two games of the weekend, but their efforts showed their offensive potential, which I think is important. The game against Rice was a totally different game — it showed that the Longhorns could put up a big offensive performance.
4. No. 20 Texas State 1, Texas 6 — Thursday, March 15
A midweek non-conference game doesn’t seem like a big deal, but going into the game against Texas State, Texas was overcoming some bumps in the road. The Longhorns held a 14-game winning streak against Texas State, recording their last loss to the Bobcats back in 2005. Texas State came in ranked 20th in the country, and their fans were hyped. All of their fans thought, “This is the night -— we’re coming to do it.” The Longhorns pitched well, hit well and dominated the game.
The win launched Texas. They went on the road to a then-15th ranked Oklahoma team and swept them. They continued to win conference series and didn’t drop another mid-week game after that. They played a real complete game against Texas State, and it gave them a spark that they needed heading into conference play. The Longhorns started on a roll, winning every conference series except A&M.
3. No. 24 Texas 6, at Kansas State 4 (11 innings) — Saturday March 24 The game against Kansas State was an example of what’s happened quite a few times this season when the Longhorns had a case of the Friday night blues. Texas dropped Friday night games against Kansas State, Texas Tech — even though that game was the second one of the series — Kansas and Oklahoma State. In all of those cases, the Longhorns had to win the next day to win the series.
The middle game against Kansas State was important because Texas showed resiliency in conference play after dropping the Friday game. Pitcher Corey Knebel had his first extended outing of the year, showing he could handle the extra time on the mound. The Longhorns rallied to win in 11 innings and won the Sunday game as well.
2. No. 25 Texas 14 at Texas Tech 3 — Saturday, April 7
The game took place over Easter weekend — a Thursday, Friday and Saturday series. Texas won the Thursday game, but the Friday game was just devastating. Texas lost in 14 innings, missing multiple opportunities to win the game.
The next day before the final game of the series, I stood by when [head coach] Augie [Garrido] spoke to the team. He talked about how each of them had experienced tougher things in their lives than the difficulty of losing that game. He also said that if they hadn’t been through those circumstances, and had the will to come through, they wouldn’t be in that uniform. He ended with, “You need to go show that you can overcome this.”
And they went out and just wiped Texas Tech out. The Longhorns beat them 14-3 to win the series. That game was an important point in the season.
1. No. 9 Texas A&M 1, No. 20 Texas 2 — Sunday, April 29
The symbolic nature of the two teams meeting for the final time in regular season play makes this game the best game of the season. Texas lost a heartbreaking game on Friday night, rallying back from 6-0 to get five runs in the ninth, only to lose 6-5. They returned home on Saturday and the Aggies throttled them, winning the series. The loss marked Texas’ first conference series loss of the season. In the third game, they needed to avoid the sweep and try to protect their RPI. Down 1-0 in the bottom of the ninth, they scored twice. The runs propelled the Longhorns to a 2-1 win over A&M.
The Longhorns played a clean defensive game, and found a way to offensively get it done. The win is a great way to remember the last game between Texas and A&M. Several Longhorn fans told me the team’s rally in the bottom of the ninth gave them that Justin Tucker kick feeling of a last minute kill shot.
Final thoughts…
The Longhorns still have some great memories left to make as the end of the season inches closer. If the team can answer the question of who will replace Parker French, as well as get Taylor Stell back and stay healthy, they’ll be dangerous in the postseason. Texas will not be a team with high expectations. They will not be at home. And they’ll be the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the Regional. But whoever lands in their bracket isn’t going to be comfortable going against Texas. Given everything they’ve been through this year, the Longhorns will persevere.
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