Not too late for Horns to get on a hot streak
In 1992, Augie Garrido’s Cal State Fullerton baseball team liked to
par ty a little too hard, so he decided to lock up the ballpark for three days so they couldn’t practice. It was a wayward team of talented players.
The banishment had a profound effect, as the Titans got their act together, won the regional and finished second in the College World Series.
“That was the best-mannered team ever because the pl ayers dec ided to take it over,” Garrido said. “They went from the worst to the best in 24 hours.”
That story is relevant today for the simple fact it’s not relevant at all.
Garrido’s current club at Texas, which has regressed to medioc rity with 10 losses in its las t 12 games, has avoided the pitfalls known to torpedo talented clubs. Everyone insists there is no finger-pointing between the pitchers, who’ve largely done their job, and the batters, who’ve been abysmal and fai led to score a run Tuesday against Sam Houston State.
“We don’t have any dissension,” Garrido said. “On a lot of teams at this point, you have people blaming everybody else, looking around, feeling bad about coming to the ballpark. None of that is going on. I’ve been through all of those things, so I know the difference.”
Fifteen games remain and Texas (19-18, 6-6) had better start stockpiling wins to avoid missing the postseason for the third time in four year s and silence growing speculation about Garrido’s job security. This weekend at Kansas would be a good time to rediscover the magic forged in February, but the last-place Jayhawks (15-22, 3-6) aren’t the pushover their record would indicate. A week ago, conference co-leader Oklahoma State came to Lawrence and was beaten two games to one.
“I think we’re gonna put it on them, and that’s what we’re going (there) to do,” said Texas pitcher Kacy Clemens, who will start Sunday. “That’s how we feel right now.”
Of the four conference ser ies Texas still must pl ay, three are on the road — at Kansas, TCU and Baylor.
Garrido is pull ing out al l the stops to end the free fall. He briefly benched three players — C.J Hinojosa, Bret Boswell and Zane Gurwitz — who were slumping at the plate, and has stripped Hinojosa of his duties at shortstop. On Tuesday, Hinojosa even went to left field in a shift aimed at giving Gurwitz the day off. Garrido called Hinojosa’s .206 batting average — a 97-point drop from his career average — “inconceivable.”
The optimist looks at last season’s run by the Longhorns as reas on to keep believing. A year ago Friday, Texas was shut out at home by TCU to begin a stretch of three conference series losses in a row. Things got better, culminating in titles at the regional and super regional and very nearly another one at the College World Series.
“We’ve done a lot of things right this year, and hopefully the game knows,” Clemens said. “Hopefully we’ll get out of this thing and get hot and get back to Omaha where we should be.”