By Steve Habel – Horns Illustrated Associate Editor
There were plenty of doubts this season about the Texas baseball team’s supposed resurgence, especially in the middle of the Big 12 season when the Horns lost their final three league series to seemingly toss away any momentum they had built in the campaign’s first two months.
Those doubts were erased in comprehensive fashion Saturday when the Texas Longhorns Baseball team beat Houston 4-0 to win game two, sweep the NCAA Austin Super Regional and earn its record 35th trip to the College World Series in Omaha.
A second consecutive sellout crowd at sun-splashed UFCU Disch-Falk Field was on hand as the Horns rode a [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]four-run fourth inning, continued sterling defensive play and hit-it-if-you-can pitching to return to college baseball’s promised land for the first time since 2011.
“Look who’s coming to dinner,” Texas coach Augie Garrido said afterward in reference to the College World Series. “This team has earned a trip to Omaha but it likely wouldn’t have been possible without all the adversity we had to face and work through this season. These players have bonded together and stayed together.”
The Longhorns (43-19) used four pitchers – starter Parker French (6-5), relievers Travis Duke and Morgan Cooper and closer John Curtiss – to stymie Houston’s powerful offensive attack. The Cougars pounded the ball around the yard and managed 10 hits but left 14 runners on base, including six in scoring position.
“We never stopped but Texas did the things it needed to do to win today and we didn’t,” Houston coach Todd Whitting said. “We had some chances and couldn’t take advantage of them. Texas was all we expected them to be. In the end, we just ran out of gas.”
Texas got all the runs it would need in the fourth, scoring four times while batting around against Houston ace starter Aaron Garcia (9-5).
Ben Johnson opened the frame with a double to left that Cougars’ outfielder Michael Pyeatt had in his glove near the wall but could not corral. Payton followed with a walk and Tres Barrera’s picture-perfect bunt single down the third base line moved both runners up 90 feet and loaded the bases.
One out later, C.J Hinojosa waited back and strafed a two-strike, opposite-field single to right that scored Payton and Barrera to break the scoreless deadlock.
“I just told myself to relax and look for a pitch up, something I could elevate or drive to right field,” Hinojosa said. “I kept my hands back and got the pitch I was hoping for.”
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