Texas baseball headed back to College World Series for record 36th time

By Habeab Kurdi

Oh my, my, it’s Omaha O’clock once again for the Texas baseball team.

In a suspense-filled three-game series, the No. 14 Longhorns held on to hold off No. 20 Tennessee Tech’s attempted ninth-inning rally for the 5-2 win to earn a spot in the College World Series for an NCAA-record 36th time. The win sends[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Texas to an NCAA-record 36th College World Series.

“Wow,” Texas head coach David Pierce said afterward Monday at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. “What an awesome, awesome game.” 

In front of a packed house of 7,370 in attendance, Game 1 starting pitcher Nolan Kingham faced a bases-loaded, two-out situation in the ninth. As the noise and cheers swelled throughout the stadium, Kingham induced a groundout to end the threat and the game, and Texas celebrated like it hadn’t since 2014.

“For us to finish it, it’s really special, it really is. It’s hard to do. It’s hard to win a National Championship, it’s hard to get to Omaha,” Pierce said.

Matteo Bocchi pitched the best game of his career, going a season-high five innings with just one earned run, one walk and three strikeouts before he exited with a 4-1 lead, picking up the win in just his fourth start of the season. Texas needed every bit of it a day after pitching potential Game 3 starter Blair Henley in relief in Game 2. Third baseman Ryan Reynolds, who had been struggling slightly, provided a big blow early on with a two-run double in the second to give Texas an early 2-0 lead it never would relinquish. Second baseman Kody Clemens continued his torrid stretch of hitting with a 2-for-3 day, including another home run — his staggering 11th in the last 15 games. Two batters later, DJ Petrinsky added a home run of his own to left to put the Longhorns ahead, 4-0, after three innings.

“(Clemens) has been doing it since Day 1, and he does it in the biggest moments and that’s what makes me think he’s the best hitter in college baseball right now,” Pierce said. “This is not a typical Texas team full of blue-chip players. We have some, but we have a lot of contributors and that’s what’s really, really special about this group.”

Texas, and the Clemens family — including patriarch Roger, who was on hand for all three games — have a long history of taking Texas to the College World Series, and Kody said he knew it was this team’s time to fulfill its potential.

“It means a lot. You know, Kacy (Clemens) and all my brothers have told me that it’s the best time of your life. My dad definitely said it was one of his favorite moments ever playing baseball. I think that everyone is pretty excited,” Kody Clemens said. “I’m definitely super-excited. It’s going to be a fun time, and we have unfinished business.

“It’s unbelievable. Everyone on this team just believes in one another. That’s the key for us right now:  just focus on the next three seconds, and play it one inning — one pitch — at a time.”  

Heading into the pivotal Game 3, the Longhorns had faith in Bocchi, but the junior transfer student had not been in this situation before. There was a sense of ease from him before the game and that seemed to translate to his team and his big pitching performance.

“(Pierce) told me last night after the game (I was starting). I tried to stay calm and I went straight to bed at 8 last night,” he said, adding that he probably didn’t even know what the College World Series was until a year or two ago. “My approach was to go on the mound, throw strikes and let my defense work and that’s what I did. It was a dream and it came true today.”

Pierce joked that the biggest key to getting that performance from Bocchi was reigning in his immense potential just a little bit. A slight adjustment due to the heat and humidity, along with heavily swirling winds, made a difference, too.

“First of all, there’s no denying this young man. He is determined and he is going to figure it out,” Pierce said. “The thing we had to do with Matteo was simplify him. He had so many things and so many thoughts we wanted to get him really narrow-minded into, ‘I got a good fastball, I’m going to improve my slider,’ and we went to the change-up because really the humidity with the split, the change-up was better. He just does everything right.”

Texas benefited from a boatload of luck in the sixth inning to tack on one more run, as Golden Eagle catcher Brennon Kaleiwahea had a had tough time with a couple high fly balls into the wind. Following a bunt single, Tate Shaw legged his way to second base to beat a throw and avoid a double play, leaving him on second when David Hamilton lofted a high fly just above home plate. The catcher couldn’t track it, and charging first baseman Chase Chambers couldn’t corral the basket catch as the ball fell to the turf and Shaw raced across the plate for an insurance run.

In the final frame, Kingham worked around a walk to get the final two outs — the last with the bases loaded — with a powerful dose of Parker Joe Robinson mixed in to complete three-game series win and help the Longhorns improve upon last season with a trip to Omaha.

“We have a really relaxing atmosphere, especially during practices, and that helps translate during games,” Robinson said. “(Pierce is a) player’s coach, he let’s us play the game, do what we need to do to get ready and I think that’s translated, obviously, the past two years. We were one game away last year, and this year we did it and clinched it, and are going to Omaha.”

Clemens and Petrinksy went deep in the next inning and Texas had all the runs it would need to win the day.

“That’s one of the best hitting teams in the country, (and) for us to hold them to five, one and two runs (in the three games) is pretty impressive. I thought our guys executed the plan very well,” Pierce said. “Honestly we wanted to stay down and away with both the slider and the fastball. They’re a team that wants the ball middle-in and I thought we executed that really well.”

Tennessee Tech seemed stunned that their bats never woke up after getting 11 hits and five runs in game one — numbers they couldn’t match over the next two games combined.

“We had five hits today and a season-low three yesterday. To be able to do that to this group of young men, I am honestly amazed to be frank with you. I give credit to them,” Golden Eagles coach Matt Bragga said. “I think that they really pounded the strike zone, they went after us with fastballs. Our guys were a little late and that doesn’t happen very often with our guys. So they were doing something pretty special out there. Good for them.”

Once the Longhorns saluted the raucous crowd, they gathered in celebration in center field on the Longhorn logo bearing AG and the No. 16 for former coach Augie Garrido, with the nearly still-packed stands chanting “Augie, Augie, Augie.”

Pierce and the team said “no doubt” Garrido stayed with them in spirit since his passing earlier this year.

“I was rubbing Augie’s jersey in the seventh inning, and that’s no doubt either,” Pierce said.

“It’s kind of this crazy thing,” added Robinson, whose father played under Garrido at Cal-State Fullerton. “We were celebrating his life just a couple months ago. It seems like almost right after he passed away our team kind of flipped a switch. I dunno — maybe Augie was with us. We just played all together and it was a one big thing, bigger than baseball.”

Robinson entered the game in the sixth with one out and the bases loaded, and got his team out of the jam.

The Texas infield is used to that situation and even in the middle of a dire situation, seeing No. 49 trot in from the bullpen gets them smiling every time, according to Clemens.

“We just kind of laugh when he’s running in from the bullpen and it’s bases loaded, nobody out,” Clemens said. “It’s like, ‘Here comes Parker Joe again. Unfortunately you’re in this situation, but c’mon, let’s get some outs.’

“He basically just does his job every time and he’s unfazed, that’s just how he is on the mound.”

Six Longhorn pitchers combined to hold one of the nation’s best hitting teams to their second-lowest hit total (five) of the season, a day after holding the Golden Eagles to their lowest (three). Pierce turned to Henley in the sixth after five strong from Bocchi, but Henley was pitching back-to-back games for the first time this season and after two walks, Pierce summoned Josh Sawyer, who got an out and a walk. That’s when the Longhorns’ head coach decided to go to his closer.

“It’s usually bases loaded and nobody out (when he comes in). If he has one out, we basically tell him, ‘Hey this is a luxury for you, this is easy,” Pierce laughed before recalling a time earlier in the year when it solidified how much his team believes in the righty. “We were at Texas Tech and Ryan Reynolds … said to me, ‘if you pull Parker Joe out I’m going to kick your butt.’ He didn’t say that, but he basically said don’t pull him out. So I listened to him that day and it worked pretty well.”

The stoic Robinson, who fellow pitcher Chase Shugart says never expresses emotions on the field, was once again calm and fearless as he got through the inning.

“It’s kind of the same old same old. Act like it’s an intersquad and we’re playing against each other and keep doing the same thing,” Robinson said about not feeling emotional or feeling pressure. “I mean, when there’s two strikes you can hear the crowd a little bit, but then you just take a deep breath and it’s back to the basics.”

Tate Shaw went 2-for-4 with two runs scored, Masen Hibbeler had a huge double ahead of Reynolds’ two-run double in the second, and once again it was Clemens making opponents pay for pitching to him.

A day earlier, Bragga joked “we may walk him every time tomorrow (in Game 3),” but the Golden Eagles only walked him once in four at-bats as the Detroit Tigers third-round pick went 2-for-3 with his opposite field homer in the third barely eking its way out of the park as the winds gusted from right to left field.

“At noon, the wind really blows to left and the ball carries if you hit it that way with backspin. I know I’ve done it in BP before, and it was a low-and-outside pitch and i just backspun it and I barreled it so as soon as it went in the air I was like, ‘alright — it’s got a chance. Let’s see what happens.’ The outfielder kept going back-back-back and it went out, and I’m like, ‘Thank you, wind.’”

In the fateful ninth, Robinson walked the leadoff hitter and was replaced by Andy McGuire, who came on for one out before giving way to Kingham, who worked around a walk to clinch the win.

“Like with Blair yesterday, we weren’t going to leave a bullet in the bullpen and get beat,” Pierce said. “I liked what Parker Joe was doing and I didn’t want to mess up any karma. We knew if leadoff hitter got on, we were going to Andy. Andy struggled a little bit and at that point it’s like, ‘we’ve got a guy — it’s not for long — but a guy that’s been there and been our Friday night guy, so we’re not going to leave him in the bullpen and get beat.’”

As the Texas team moves on to Omaha, Nebraska for the College World Series to face the winner of Monday night’s third game between Arkansas and South Carolina, the Longhorn pitching staff seems to have hit its stride to become one of the most formidable staffs in the nation and just the perfect time.

“The pitching staff realized potential all at once,” Pierce said. “We’ve been piecing it together and going to three guys and utilizing their strengths, and when we have to, extend it a little bit going to a couple of middle guys who have really contributed.

“You just never know when you get to this time of year. You put your faith in the kids and in their strengths and they start building confidence. That’s what happened. Sometimes it takes roles a little longer to evolve, but you can see the roles really starting to take off, and it makes it a little easier on the coach too because you kind of know who you want to go to.”

He finished with one last thought before leaving the podium happy.  

“One shoutout, for the fanbase.”

The ‘Horns, and that fanbase, have been waiting for this one. The hopeful anticipation for the first national title since 2005 resumes June 16 in Omaha.

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