The hopes of an improbable run from the loser\u2019s bracket to the College World Series finals took a final blow for the Texas Longhorns on Tuesday at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha in a 2-0 loss to the Georgia Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
Defined by the long ball all season, the Bulldogs scratched runs over the plate in the fifth and seventh innings by playing small ball and coming through an RBI double to score the first run and a sacrifice fly to short left field for the second, winning despite striking out 17 times.<\/p>\n
Texas got almost nothing going in the batter\u2019s box, recording just four hits and drawing three walks to strand seven runners on base. Only one of those hits came from a leadoff batter and none came with a runner on base \u2014 the Horns crashed into the offseason by going 0-for-8 with runners on and 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n
For the second straight game against Georgia in Omaha, the moment seemed too big for the Texas hitters.<\/p>\n
The poor hitting wasted superlative performances on the mound from redshirt senior left-hander Luke Harrison and freshman right-hander Sam Cozart. Harrison set his career high with 11 strikeouts to close out his career in burnt orange and white, allowing one run on two hits and four walks in 5.2 innings. Cozart struck out six in 3.1 innings, giving up one run on three hits.<\/p>\n
Harrison was sensational through the first four innings, striking out 10 batters and looking in complete control with his fastball reaching into the mid-90s, a rarity throughout his career. The control only faltered slightly in the fifth, when Georgia drew a full-count walk and opted to play small ball, also a rarity for the Dawgs \u2014 the sacrifice bunt put down was only the second this season, but paid off when the runner was advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a double to left to put UGA up 1-0.<\/p>\n
The pressure on the Texas starter increased in the sixth when Georgia loaded the bases with two outs on a four-pitch walk after a full-count walk and a bloop single, prompting Schlossnagle to make the call to the bullpen for freshman right-hander Sam Cozart, his first appearance in the College World Series.<\/p>\n
Squaring twice once again, Kolby Branch took a fastball inside and a big breaker for a strike before swinging and missing against Cozart\u2019s best fastball. Ahead 1-2, Cozart dotted the inside corner with a 95-mph heater to leave the bases loaded and keep the Horns in the game.<\/p>\n
Against Georgia starter Dylan Vigue, who has struggled to work deep into games this year, Texas put runners on first and second with one out in the first after junior catcher Carson Tinney singled up the middle and freshman left fielder Anthony Pack Jr. drew a walk, bringing up sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, perhaps the hottest hitter in college baseball.<\/p>\n
Behind early, Rodriguez fought off several pitches before flying out to center field, advancing Tinney to third. After Pack stole second without a throw, junior designated hitter Ethan Mendoza couldn\u2019t come through as Vigue worked ahead again and struck out Mendoza on four pitches.<\/p>\n
Like Joey Volchko did on Saturday against Texas, Vigue used a devastating slider that typically had glove-side run and often made the Longhorns chase out of the zone with no chance to get the barrel to the baseball.<\/p>\n
The early pressure on Vigue prompted to Georgia bullpen to get moving in the first, but after that, Vigue comfortably worked out a two-out single in the second, struck out the side in the third, and retired Texas in order in the fourth before departing after issuing a leadoff walk in the fifth.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Justin Byrd came on for Vigue and also featured his own slider, striking out the first batter he faced, fielding his position on a sacrifice bunt, and getting Texas junior right fielder Aiden Robbins out on two pitches on a foul ball to third base.<\/p>\n
In the sixth, Byrd gave up a two-out single to Rodriguez, who advanced to second on an error by the right fielder, but Mendoza was unable to come through, hitting a line drive to right field that failed to trouble Ryan Black after his error.<\/p>\n
Georgia manufactured a run in the seventh without much solid contact \u2014 a blooper to center was initially in the glove of redshirt senior Dariyan Pendergrass and initially ruled a catch, but came out as he rolled and was ruled a hit, a weak single through the right side beat the shift, and a collision between Rodriguez and Pack on a popup in short left field delayed the throw by Rodriguez to the plate, which was too slow to get Black at the plate despite a good throw by the Texas shortstop.<\/p>\n
A four-pitch walk by Cozart extended the inning, but a blooper to second found the glove of redshirt senior Temo Becerra to send the Horns to the plate down 2-0.<\/p>\n
Up first, Becerra got a good pitch to hit, but didn\u2019t find the barrel on a fly ball to left, the Georgia first baseman made a nice play on a sharp grounder by junior first baseman Ashton Larson, and junior third baseman Casey Borba hit a routine grounder to shortstop on the first pitch he saw.<\/p>\n
Cozart settled in during the eighth, working backwards to strike out the first two batters looking on fastballs and third swinging.<\/p>\n
Pinch hitting for Pendergrass, redshirt senior Josh Livingston laced a line drive to right field to lead off the eighth, but Black was playing deep and made the play easily. Down 1-2 after swinging and missing at the first two pitches, Robbins recorded his second hit of the College World Series on a single up the middle, but Tinney took an 0-2 fastball over the plate for a strikeout. More discerning, Pack drew a five-pitch walk to bring Rodriguez to the plate, but he chased a breaking ball low and rolled it over to the Georgia first baseman to end the inning.<\/p>\n
Black opened the ninth with a leadoff single on a 0-2 breaking ball from Cozart, who helped himself out by catching a popup bunt in front of the plate, struck out Daniel Jackson on a cutter with glove-side movement, and got a long flyout to left caught by Pack with defensive replacement Maddox Monsour barreling down on him from center.<\/p>\n
In the ninth, the Horns went quietly into the offseason against Byrd, who notched his sixth win of the season after putting Texas down in order without much trouble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The hopes of an improbable run from the loser\u2019s bracket to the College World Series finals took a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,20340,28],"class_list":["post-339758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-longhorns-baseball","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}