Morgan Cooper, the tall right hander is in. Barker, from the right side is the batter with two outs and two on. A sharp liner goes to right for single to load the bases. Fulmer, the nine hole hitter bats righty as the now tying run with two outs. A ground ball to third and again Texas exscapes unscathed and I see that as a sign. Three more outs to get and to the bottom of the eighth, Texas leads still 4-0.
Brockwell pitches the eighth for Houston. Barrera leads off for the Horns. He K's swinging for one down. Carter bats righty with one away. A grounder to third is two down. Hinojosa bats with two outs. A pop to short retires the side in order. Three outs to Texas's second home as the ninth is here and the Horns lead 4-0.
John Curtis, the closer comes back again today looking to send the Horns to Omaha. He faces the top of the Cougar order. Survance steps in lefty to start the ninth. A liner by Curtis is flagged by Hinojosa and he makes a 360 and an accurate throw is one big out on an outstanding play. Vidales bats lefty again against Curtis with one down. He lines another single to right field as this guy has been a hitting machine. Ratcliff up with one one and one down. A pitch goes off Barrera and the runner moves to second. That hit something hard and banged off hard. A wild pitch I guess. A four pitch walk puts two on. Pinch hitter Jacob Luenburg coming up. Skip out of the dugout and then returns. Luenburg steps in lefty and flies out to left for the second out. Now Montemayor from the left side stands between Texas and Omaha. A fly ball to Johnson and that's it. Texas the first team to OMAHA! They win the game 4-0 and the series 2-0. Back with the wrap up in a moment. What a game and day for the Horns!
Now this looks like the team we had hoped it would look like after getting our hopes up prior to OSU and TCU series. Hopefully, they are putting it all together. The hitting and pitching this weekend were very good. I really expected more from Houston, but they only scored 2 runs in this "short" series. Very happy for the seniors and others as well. Augie somehow regrouped this young men and made it look easy. Congratulations Horns. And now, the most commonly used 4-letter word used at a ***** house: next!
One more time the starting pitching puts up 0's though it wasn't easy. The relievers do the job and the fielding was outstanding. A misplayed fly ball opened the door and Texas put up a crooked number and that one inning was all the offense needed. Houston actually outhit Texas 10-8 and left runners on all game. You wish you had Peters, but still anything from here on out is gravy really. Will be hard in Omaha if you get in the loser's bracket. Today though, the Horns go back to Omaha and that is all that matters. Great day for all Longhorn baseball fans as we all can go "back home to Omaha" in person or in spirit and nothing feels better.
A big THANK YOU to NB. You have had an All-American season, and my nominee for HornFans poster of the year. Truly great being able to live your play X play commentary. You are finished this year, so get some rest and sharpen your pencil. Hook'm.
Great atmosphere, sold out stadium, and lucky we had seats in the shade. David Ash was also in the House. Hook Em.
shutout today in a loser-go-home game, and 2 runs allowed in 18 innings to a team that had scored heavily on LSU. And it looks like Augie is letting them lead themselves. He does have a special kind of mentoring. Also notice the impact on programs since the AD change. Less fear of job, I think, more renewed energy of "let's get going and make things happen. Let's have fun at what we do (in this sport)." I enjoy this level of baseball much more than MLB. Congrats, guys!!!
