OTF Premium No. 2 Texas faces elimination after a sloppy 9-7 loss to UTSA in the Austin Regional

[Jeff Howe]

Through four innings of Saturday’s 9-7 loss to UTSA in the Austin Regional, Texas looked the part of the No. 2 overall national seed.

A two-out, two-run single through the right side of the Roadrunner infield by Jonah Williams and Casey Borba’s RBI double to left field highlighted a five-run, four-hit third inning for the SEC regular-season champions. Leading 6-1 with reliable lefty Luke Harrison toeing the rubber, the Longhorns seemed well on their way to a winner’s bracket victory when they took the field for the top of the fifth.

Unfortunately, Texas (43-13) suffered a catastrophic blowout, derailing what had been a relatively smooth ride. Jim Schlossnagle’s club suddenly looked like the one that had lost seven of its previous 11 games before going down at the hands of UTSA (46-13) for the second time in as many meetings.

A fielding error charged to Adrian Rodriguez (one of two on the night for the Longhorns, who couldn’t overcome a tidal wave of defensive mishaps) and Harrison issuing free passes loaded the bases to open the frame. Jalin Flores didn’t quite catch up to a ground ball up the middle off the bat of second baseman Nathan Hodge.

Hodge scored with one out after his two-run single kickstarted a four-run inning for the Roadrunners, pulling off a double steal while occupying third base with one out. Right fielder James Taussig made it a one-run game by ripping a double to right-center.

"It was just a back-and-forth game from that point on," Schlossnagle said.

Texas failed to get a run back in the home half, which ended on a Max Belyeu strikeout with the bases loaded. Max Grubbs opened the fifth by recording two outs on two pitches, but Flores misread Hodge’s blooper, one of three consecutive singles for the Roadrunners, who grabbed a 7-6 advantage.

UTSA didn't trail the rest of the way. The defensive issues, combined with the Longhorns stranding 13 runners on a woeful 3-for-18 night at the plate with runners in scoring position, and ace right-hander Braylon Owens ending each of his four relief innings for the Roadrunners with one of the seven strikeouts he fired put Texas in a situation where it has to win twice on Sunday to force a winner-take-all regional championship on Monday.

"We lit the fire and they stoked it and ran with it," Schlossnagle said of coach Pat Hallmark's team, which has notched the first two NCAA Tournament wins in program history with two wins in as many days at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. "The message to the team is we can't be thinking about playing anything other than just one pitch at a time. I know it sounds coachy, but that's the fact. If we start thinking about the overall scheme of things, it won't ever happen that way.

What the Longhorns will attempt isn’t unprecedented.

As a regional host in 2005, Texas dropped a winner’s bracket game to Arkansas before beating Miami (Ohio) and dispatching the Razorbacks twice en route to the school’s sixth national championship. The Longhorns made a similar trek to Omaha in 2011, eliminating Texas State and notching two wins over Kent State to survive the regional.

Nevertheless, Schlossnagle’s club must overcome Rodriguez, Williams and Ethan Mendoza continuing to battle injuries and a depleted pitching staff (Ruger Riojas will get the ball in the elimination game, but all bets are off thereafter) to advance to a second elimination game Sunday night.

UTSA has every reason to be confident it will join the 81 percent of regional champions who started 2-0 since the NCAA adopted the Super Regional format in 1999.

"This isn't some jackleg team that's gotten hot," Schlossnagle said of the Roadrunners. "They're really good."

Texas, on the other hand, knows extending the season to Monday is a tall order.

"The goal moving forward is just to win one pitch at a time and not try to look ahead or think about winning two games or trying to win three games," said catcher Rylan Galvan, who did his part in the late innings, crushing his team-leading 15th home run of the season to left field in the bottom of the seventh. "Just win one pitch at a time. If we can do that, we'll put ourselves in the position."

The Longhorns are facing an uphill battle, 27 outs away from the curtain coming down on Schlossnagle’s memorable debut.

The only option Texas has is to start the climb. Whether it has enough gas in the tank to make it to the summit is another story.

"We may have lost this battle, but we didn't lose the war yet," Galvan said. "There's still a lot of baseball to be played."

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[HookemHorns87]

This Pitching Staff has been absolute embarrassment the last 2 months the season 😡😡😡😡

[Zachery Nelson]

Is there a run rule ? 

[HornsUpThumbsDown]

What happens in baseball no excuses 

[BILL ALLEN]

1 hour ago, Zachery Nelson said:

Is there a run rule ? 

They played all 9 in Kentucky 16-4 win at Clemson 

[Jeff Howe]

Chamberlain draws a walk and then advances to second base as Belyeu is retired on a grounder to first base.

[Jeff Howe]

Schuessler missed a two-run home run down the left-field line by a few feet. 

[Jeff Howe]

Tommy Farmer will hit for Rodriguez.

[Jeff Howe]

Flores is on deck, so it looks like he's staying in the game.

[Jeff Howe]

Farmer is up with Chamberlain on second and two outs.

[Jeff Howe]

Gumbo has a bat in his hand, so he'll hit in the DH spot after pinch running for Jonah in the sixth.

[Jeff Howe]

Farmer is retired on a high infield popup. 

[Jeff Howe]

M7: Texas 14, K-State 3

[Jeff Howe]

Farmer taking over in left field for Rodriguez and Chamberlain behind the plate for Galvan are the only defensive changes for Texas in the seventh.

[Jeff Howe]

Riojas' sixth strikeout leads off the seventh. He's up to 93 pitches.

[Jeff Howe]

My bad for crossing streams with the threads. I'll post the score to the K-State game when it goes final.

[snugsie]

Full choke mode 

[Jeff Howe]

The Longhorns are alive after a 15-8 win over K-State.

They'll take on UTSA at 7:06 p.m., with the starting pitcher and TV information still TBD.