Texas baseball season ends with 6-1 loss to Florida in College World Series

By Habeab Kurdi

OMAHA, Neb. — Texas teetered on the precipice of busting out but fell short in a 6-1 season-ending loss Tuesday to defending champion Florida at the College World Series in Omaha.

Looking every bit the battling ball club that surged back to beat Tennessee Tech in the Super Regionals, the Longhorns rallied early and late yet the clutch hit eluded them against the No. 1-seeded Gators. Things looked bright early on when[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] Texas put two runners on in the first inning with one out against Florida ace Jackson Kowar, who mixed an array of filthy stuff to keep Texas off kilter. Kowar finished with 13 strikeouts, perhaps none bigger than his two he got to strand those two runners to end the first inning. Texas went on to strand 11 runners and went 1-for-13 with runners in scoring position.

“We competed. We just didn’t come up with the hit when we had some guys in scoring position,” Texas head coach David Pierce said, “and I think that’s a credit to (Kowar), the way he dialed it up.”

Making their 36th trip to the College World Series, the Longhorns kept the elimination game close through five innings, thanks to some handy work from starter Blair Henley over the first 2-2/3 innings and then a strong 4-1/3 innings from Chase Shugart. Shugart cruised through two innings and had a season-high six strikeouts in his appearance. Then the Gators got a pair of big two-out hits in the sixth, including a three-run homer to go ahead, 5-0, and break the game open.

The seventh saw Texas put its first two runners on via a Jake McKenzie single and a hustling double from Masen Hibbeler, but Kowar was too sharp and struck out the next three Longhorns. Texas broke through in the eighth on an RBI single by DJ Petrinksy, and had two on with one out and a chance to make it a game, but again the Gators got out of the jam.

Second baseman Kody Clemens had one last chance to make another lasting mark at Texas, but as was the result for plenty of long Texas fly balls, his shot with two on and two out in the bottom of the ninth fell just a few feet short to end the game.

“The park played big, (and) the wind kept shifting,” Clemens said. “Every fly ball I thought we hit well, like (Zach) Zubia’s (liner in the eighth with two on and none out) … they didn’t carry enough.”

A Longhorn team that was long on promise exceeded expectations this year, laying the groundwork for a lengthy string of runs to Omaha.

“The things they had to accomplish to get here is incredible,” Pierce said of his team.

Added Clemens, “They’ll remember the fight we had in us all year.”

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