By Steve Lansdale
LONG BEACH, Calif. — The second-seeded Texas baseball team advanced to face either San Diego State or Long Beach State in Sunday night’s final of the Long Beach Regional by outlasting LBSU, 5-3, in 12 innings.
“I’ve been doing this for about 30 years now, and that is by far [s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)]the best ballgame I’ve ever been a part of, and I’ve been a part of a lot of great baseball games,” Texas head coach David Pierce said after the victory. “Both teams laid it on the line, both teams pitched and played great defense, and I’m just really proud of our fight. From start to finish, we weren’t clean early, but we pitched lights-out, (got some) unbelievable defensive plays and some clutch hitting. I’m just really, really proud of our team tonight.”
Texas starter Morgan Cooper, who earned Collegiate Baseball All-America honors earlier in the week, scattered six hits and struck out seven while walking just one over eight innings before giving way to Chase Shugart and Beau Ridgeway, each of whom pitched two innings and allowed one hit. Ridgeway got the win to improve his personal record to 2-2.
The Dirtbags took a 1-0 lead in the first inning, but UT tied the score in the top of the second on Bret Boswell’s solo home run — his sixth long ball of the season and the first of two he would hit in the game.
A solo shot by Brock Lundquist put the Dirtbags back in the lead in the bottom of the second, until Boswell went deep again in the seventh, tying the game for the second time.
“It was a great all-around team effort, starting with pitching, defense, and today we had a lot of clutch hits,” Boswell said. “We have young guys and we have old guys, and really we’re all meshing together at the right time. We’re rolling right now, so it’s good to see.”
Once again, Long Beach State responded in the bottom of the inning, taking its third lead of the game on an unearned run. But this time, the Longhorns responded when senior outfielder Zane Gurwitz hit UT’s third solo home run of the game.
The Dirtbags had a chance to end the game in the 10th, when Jarren Duran tried to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park home run, but third baseman Ryan Reynolds made the play of the game when he snatched the throw from left field with his bare hand and fired the relay home to get Duran and end the inning.
UT got its only lead — and the lead it would need — in the 12th inning. After Reynolds walked and moved to second on a single by catcher Michael Cantu, shortstop David Hamilton pushed both of them into scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. When the Longhorns loaded the bases when right fielder Patrick Mathis was intentionally walked, designated hitter Travis Jones made the Dirtbags pay for the strategy, driving in Reynolds and Cantu with a single to left.
Jones said the pride he felt in delivering the game-winning hit should not overshadow the contributions of his teammates that allowed the Longhorns to rally and send the game into extra innings.
“It feels great, but I think a lot of things go unnoticed because I had the two winning RBIs,” he said. “Bret hit two home runs, Zane hit a home run to tie up the game in the eighth. So I feel like I did my part, but a lot of things were overlooked (because of) what happened in the extra innings.”
Long Beach State and San Diego State will square off at 3 p.m. (central time) in an elimination game; the winner faces UT at 9 p.m. CT.
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [article-offer] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.