40 Acres Sports

Texas is right at home in Omaha and Dennis Dodd claims they’re sure to win their 6th title soon.

First game in a best-of-three championship series between the Texas Longhorns and the Florida Gators. Longhorns have an extra day of rest and have been able to set up their rotation how they want it. On the other side of things, Florida is going with a freshman pitcher who hasn’t worked since May 25th.

First inning

Longhorns ahead early again. Centerfielder took a misstep and then had no prayer catching a liner off the bat of Will Crouch. Nick Peoples, who walked to lead-off the game, scored easily on the play. Make the freshman throw strikes and jump on him early and he might not be around long.

Horns’ defense a little shaky but they use a double play to get out of the inning quickly. They lead after one, 1 – 0.

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Horns are in great shape in their bracket of the College World Series.

Not going to be posting as thoroughly as during the Baylor game because I’m working on about a thousand things (including a redesign of this site), but I’ll be updating with my thoughts on the game as they happen.

FYI, the game is on ESPN again or you can follow it online at NCAASports.com.

First inning

Great start to the game for the Longhorns. Really hitting the ball well. Close play at the plate and a great slide by Nick Peoples really got the bats going. Couldn’t really tell on the replay if Will Crouch ran through a stop sign or not but he was thrown out by a mile. With the way they were knocking the ball and the hot Chance Wheeless coming up it was definitely a bad decision by somebody.

Astros’ first round pick Brian Bogusevic has started off rusty again, he got shelled by Rice in the Super Regionals last weekend. I think if I was 6’3″ and left-handed, I could’ve made it to the Majors blind folded.

Texas again leads 2 – 0 after the first.

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Nice summary of Game 1 of the CWS.

I’ll be live blogging Texas’ first game of the College World Series. Updates on the game as well as my thoughts on how things are going. The game is on ESPN TV or you can follow along online at NCAASports.com.

The Omaha song this year sucks. Back Home to Omaha was catchy and had good lyrics, this year’s version blows.

Top 1st

People leads off with a solid base hit. Stubbs moves him over with a sacrifice bunt. Runner in scoring position with only one out, good start. The Horns have lost to Baylor four times already this year and it’s important they start off well.

Home run Seth Johnston. That was a monster shot. Baylor’s pitcher, McCormick, left a meat ball right over the middle and he crushed it. Texas is up two quickly and easily.

Walk to Round Rock’s Chance Wheeless. I bet he weighs 30 more pounds than he did as a senior in high school, he was a skinny sucker. Runner on first and one out. Texas needs to jump on the Bears now before they get settled in.

2 outs. McCormick just about broke his leg but he got the curve ball across to strike out Crouch. Carson Kainer up to bad. Grounds out to second to end the inning.

After half an inning, the Horns are up two. Good to get a fast start but they’ve got to keep the momentum. The games Texas lost in the CWS last year were almost all full of wasted chances by the Horns. Texas must play good fundamental baseball and take advantage of their scoring opportunities.

Bottom 1st

Adrian Alaniz on the mound for Texas. Been solid all year long. Throw strikes and take advantage of this lead.

Infield hit for Baylor’s Griffin. Maroul should have let that one by. No way he throws out a speedy runner on a play like that, a third baseman is supposed to get every ball he can but in that case he’s got to let Johnston get it and see if he can make a play.

Baylor plays a little small ball like Texas did and sacrifices the runner to second. Ford grounds out and the runner advances to third.

Pretty generous outside corner from the ump, both pitchers should pound it in there over and over again if he’s going to call that all night. Maroul ran about a mile and almost made a good play on a foul pop, lots of area in foul ground here.

I don’t know where Peoples was playing Dillon, but he had to run forever to catch a soft fly ball down the right field line. Barely got there in time but made the catch and Baylor strands a runner at third.

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The Longhorns will be facing Baylor in game 1 at Omaha, appearing in the College World Series for the 4th straight year. The Longhorns recent success in reaching the CWS was apparent after their victory, as the players celebrated by shaking hands in a business-like demeanor. All 7 of the other teams going to the CWS celebrated by dogpiling in the center of the field. I guess this isn’t too surprising though, considering ASU is the only other team in the CWS field with a championship.

Texas’ run to the CWS has been pretty impressive, as they have faced 5 elimination games in just the last 9 days. Texas advanced to the CWS with a 6-4 win over Ole Miss in the decisive game of their best-of-three super-regional series. Crouch put Texas ahead to stay with a tiebreaking homer in the sixth inning and Cox came up huge pitching out of another late jam.

“Since we’d been battling with them all series, I knew it would take that [homer] to win it,” Crouch said.

Texas was the last team Ole Miss wanted to see in the super-regional. Texas has been responsible for ending three of the most promising seasons in Ole Miss history. The Longhorns eliminated Ole Miss from the College World Series in 1969 and 1972, and this time they denied the Ole Miss their first berth in the series in 32 years.

Texas plays Baylor Saturday at 6pm.

They’re finally replacing the ancient scoreboard out UT’s Disch-Falk Field.