Horns’ season on the brink
Defending champs on tap
OMAHA, Neb. — No one shagging balls or taking practice on the shaggy field behind Bellevue East High School seemed demoralized. Determined, absolutely, but also loose and level. Any Longhorns overcome by stress were doing a terrific job of suppressing it.
Anyway, it didn’t seem to matter to the handful of families awaiting autographs from Kody Clemens that Texas lost its College World Series opener to Arkansas, 11-5, less than 24 hours earlier. And the AllAmerican second baseman was of course happy to oblige despite the his 1-for-5 outing in Sunday’s defeat.
Texas feels it has been in this position before, even though it really hasn’t. Not exactly.
It won two straight Super Regional elimination games against Tennessee Tech on June 10 and 11 to book a trip to Omaha, but that’s a far different stage than the one at TD Ameritrade Park. And Tennessee Tech, good as it was this year, is not top-seeded Florida, which lost Sunday night to Texas Tech to setup Tuesday’s 1 p.m. elimination game with Texas.
“We’ve been in this situation before,” said sophomore righthander Blair Henley (6-6, 3.32), who will start versus the Gators. “We’ve been knocked down. We started the year 9-9 and after (two regular-season losses to) Arkansas, actually, we picked it up. So we’re going to do the same thing.
“The mentality is the same. Nobody is down, nobody is upset about a loss. We know that we have to have better stuff to carry it all the way through.”
That sort of blanket confidence is necessary.
The defending champion Gators, despite a .500 record
over their last six games, tout three 2018 first-round draft picks and eight draftees overall. Tuesday’s starter Jackson Kowar (9-5, 3.24) was selected
33rd overall by Kansas City and boasts a fastball that has touched 98 miles per hour.
“Big arm. Big body,” Texas coach David Pierce said of the 6-foot-6 junior. “He has a plus changeup and it has split action to it.
“It looks like he likes to pitch to glove-side so right handers are going to have to stay on the ball and left-handers are going to have to turn on the ball, if that’s what he ends up doing.”
Florida is reeling from a disappointing CWS opener of its own.
Texas Tech worked starter Brady Singer — another Kansas City draftee — like few other teams have all year long, and the UF offense looked off-kilter all night. Aside from Jonathan India’s triple and Nelson Maldonado’s two-run home run, UF struggled to make solid contact.
Not that one game should lull Texas into a false sense of security. India, J.J. Schwartz, and Wil Dalton — UF”s three through five hitters — have amassed a combined 51 home runs this season. And the team’s .474 slugging percentage ranks 14th nationally.
“The thing is, they’re hitting with more power this year than they have in the past,” Pierce said. “They’re not as actionoriented, but they have the ability to do it. But usually when you feel like you can hit you’re not as action-oriented, or you feel like you have guys that can drive the ball in the gap.
“I think what we’re going to have to do is stay out of patterns, find their holes and attack those.”
Every Texas pitcher will be available out of the bullpen save for Nolan Kingham, who hurled 82 pitches Sunday.
“I think I’m ready,” Henlsey said. “Chase (Shugart) is going to be in the back part of the pen and we’re excited for that. Then it’s kind of all hands on deck with everyone else, but I hope not to get in that situation.”
Pierce and the Longhorns will spend Monday night dining together at Lo Sole Mio, an Italian restaurant that was a frequent haunt of Augie Garrido whenever his team was in town. They’ll gorge on pasta and bread and try not to dwell on how Tuesday could mark the end of the program’s best run in years. Their hotel rooms will go dark early and light up around dawn. They’ll be as prepared as possible, and the Arkansas game will be, hopefully, a distant memory.
“I’m sure everyone will get over (the loss),” Tate Shaw said Sunday night. “It’s baseball; you gotta forget.”