Texas' season on the brink after sloppy opening loss to Georgia in College World Series - Texas News Beep

OMAHA, Neb. – Georgia’s still got Texas’ number.

Doesn’t matter whether it’s in football or or in baseball or maybe tiddly winks.

But the main number was the four first-inning runs the Longhorns spotted the SEC champions before the game barely began that ruined Texas’ College World Series opener in a 7-1 defeat and pushed it to the brink of elimination.

A complete meltdown by the sixth seed, combined with a sterling 15-strikeout, career-first complete game by Bulldogs starter Joey Volchko, left Jim Schlossnagle’s team in a vast hole from which it never dug out Saturday night.

Texas (45-14), which must beat Alabama at 1 p.m. Monday or go home, might have seen a better outcome but couldn’t extricate itself from a disastrous first inning.

Not with the way Volchko was dealing.

The Stanford transfer couldn’t have been more dominant than in this four-hitter.

“That was one of the most impressive complete-game performances I’ve been a part of,” Georgia coach Wes Johnson said. “He’s had one hiccup where Mississippi State scored seven, but he continued to grind. His better days are ahead of him than what he did tonight.”

The 6-4 junior right-hander got Aiden Robbins to chase a pitch out of the strike zone for the first out and struck out the side as he did again in the fourth and checked Texas’ All-America trio at the top of the order – Robbins, Carson Tinney and Anthony Pack Jr. – on an 0-for-11 slate with seven strikeouts.

But those four runs had to relax the already-composed Dawgs starter.

“He was dominating strike one,” Schlossnagle said. “He’s got a unique fastball that runs 94 to 97 (mph) with extreme cut that’s pretty much a slider and the sweeper. He had his A-game tonight.”

GEORGIA 7, TEXAS 1

Texas

Georgia

Robbins rf

Phelps 3b

Tinney c

Jackson c

Pack Jr. lf

Lujo cf/lf

Becerra 2b

O’Shaughnessy dh

Rodriguez ss

Ishikawa lf/rf

Wynn 2b

Larson 1b

Hudson 1b

Borba 3b

Branch ss

Black rf

Livingston ph-p

Mendoza dh

Pendergrass cf

E_Volchko, Tinney, Borba. 2B_Lujo (16). HR_Lujo (14). RBI_Lujo 3 (48), Ishikawa 2 (20), Mendoza (48).

Texas

000

010

000

—

Georgia

400

000

30x

—

Texas

Winter

Volantis L

1/3

Crossland

2/3

Georgia scored four quick runs right out of the gate on a two-run home run off the left-field foul pole by Rylan Lujo, two hit batters by All-American ace Dylan Volantis, a wild pitch and the first of two throwing errors by catcher Carson Tinney, both on strikeout pitches, no less.

Thereafter, Volantis gathered himself and retired 15 of the next 17 batters before the Dawgs’ three-run seventh. But the damage was done. Five of his career-worst seven runs allowed were unearned, and Volchko threw a masterpiece with a career-high strikeouts and didn’t walk a single batter until the leadoff man in the ninth inning.

“Volchko was awesome. Didn’t walk a guy until the ninth inning and threw an endless amount of strikes,” Schlossnagle said. “The other story of the game is, from a defensive standpoint, that’s the worst game we’ve played the whole season, which is super disappointing on our end. That’s a very bad taste in our mouth.”

That taste can only dissipate if Texas gets past Alabama, which was crushed 9-0 by Oklahoma on Saturday afternoon and lost two of three to the Longhorns in the regular season.

Texas didn’t face Georgia in the regular season, but the school is getting far too accustomed to losing to the Dawgs in men’s sports. Football coach Kirby Smart, who was on hand and was interviewed by ESPN soon after that four-run Georgia scoring spree to add salt to the wound, has beaten Steve Sarkisian all three times they’ve faced in football. And this one hurts just as much.

The Longhorns didn’t need the harsh reminder even though some in the Charles Schwab Field audience of 25,002 were chanting in the ninth, “Just like football, just like football.”

Texas would have needed a touchdown worth of runs to win Saturday.

Meanwhile, Georgia (46-13) will try to cool off the Sooners in a matchup of unbeatens Monday night. Only four teams have lost their first game and come back to win the championship in the current format.

Even when the Longhorns did get a hit, things went awry. Designated hitter Ethan Mendoza drove in Texas’ only run of the game with his RBI single to right in the fifth and also singled sharply up the middle to start the eighth inning, then was forced to leave the game after injuring his chronic right shoulder. Schlossnagle had no update on his condition.

Other than shortstop Adrian Rodriguez and Mendoza, each of whom had two hits, the Longhorns were downright meek at the plate. Volantis (10-2) was almost the equal of Volchko, however, despite the first inning and settled down after the uncharacteristic rough beginning, from which he needed a whopping 41 pitches to escape. He finished with a career-high 111 pitches, one more than he threw against Oregon in the super regional.

He was vintage Volantis, in fact, as he retired 15 of 17 batters until Georgia struck for three clinching runs in the seventh on an error by Casey Borba, an RBI double off the left-field wall by Lujo and a two-run chopper over the first baseman’s head by Kenny Ishikawa.

Schlossnagle and Volantis both strongly defended Tinney despite his two errors and tough 0-for-3 night at the plate, but the senior transfer from Notre Dame has strangely been lobbing throws to first base for a few weeks instead of rifling the ball.

The coach defended the rushed throws by Tinney but also called his catcher “the heart and soul of this club” and a great player.

“That stuff happens,” Volantis said, excusing the two misplays. “I mean, he’s been phenomenal all year long, and that was the first time this happened. I told him, like no worries, but we’re going to get that cleaned up.”

Texas is going to have to and will need a quick start to avoid elimination, unlike Saturday. It started poorly from the outset. And it didn’t get much better, but the Longhorns haven’t dropped two games in a row since losing the first two games of the road series to Tennessee from May 8-9.

Without an almost guaranteed win from the always reliable Volantis, however, the Longhorns will have to extend their pitching staff and hope Monday starter Ruger Riojas can be effective and eat up innings at the same time to improve an otherwise dire situation.

“I mean, it’s double elimination,” Schlossnagle said. “It’s not the SEC Tournament, thank goodness. So we get a day off, and Ruger’s pitching Monday. But we’re not going to die.”

No, but their season might.

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This article originally published at Texas’ season on the brink after sloppy opening loss to Georgia in College World Series.

Texas’ season on the brink after sloppy opening loss to Georgia in College World Series

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