Five-run ninth-inning rally lifts Texas past No. 8 Stanford in first game of super regional
The Texas baseball team’s knack for coming up in the clutch was put to a real test on Saturday and the Longhorns came through with flying colors, and then some.
Porter Brown’s two-run, two-out bases-loaded single capped a five-run rally in the top of the ninth inning and produced a 7-5 win for Texas over No. 8 Stanford in the first game of a best-of-three NCAA super regional series at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto, Cal.
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Game 2 of the series – which is now a do-or-die for Stanford – is set for Sunday at 8 CDT. If the Cardinal win that contest a third game will be played on Monday to decide a trip to the College World Series.
The Longhorns were three outs away from defeat but used a handful of Stanford mistakes to come from behind in the ninth. Eric Kennedy started the rally with a full count walk off Cardinal reliever Ryan Bruno and Jalin Flores then was hit by a pitch. Jack O’Dowd worked the count full before coaxing another walk to load the bases and chase Bruno from the game.
Matt Scott went to the mound for the Cardinal and surrendered a fly ball to right-centerfield by Mitchell Daly that was misplayed by Stanford’s Saborn Campbell, allowing Kennedy and Flores to score and cut the Texas deficit to 5-4.
Jared Thomas’ groundout brought home pinch runner Jayden Duplantier with the tying run and walks to Powell and Dylan Thomas, the latter an intentional pass, loaded the bases again and set the stage for Brown, who laced a single to right field to give the Longhorns their first lead of the game.
Zane Morehouse then struck out all three batters he faced in the bottom of the ninth to cement the unlikely win for the Longhorns.
Ace Whitehead (4-0), the third of four Texas pitchers, earned the victory despite allowing two walks in the eighth, his only inning of work. Morehouse’s save was his seventh, and, by far, the biggest of the season.
Texas had no answer for Stanford catcher Malcolm Moore, who drove in four runs with a two-run homer, a double and a bases loaded walk, to stake the Cardinal to a 5-2 lead after eight innings.
The Longhorns managed just six hits in the game, two each by Brown and Kennedy, but also drew six walks and a hit batsman. Campbell was 0 for 3 and had his team- and Big 12-record hitting streak stopped at 38 games after the intentional walk in the ninth.
Texas ace lefthander Lucas Gordon was off his game early on, allowing a hit and walking three in the first inning. Gordon’s third walk (which was on four pitches) was handed to Moore with the bases loaded, chased home Tommy Troy from third base and gave the Cardinal a 1-0 lead.
Moore added his second RBI in the third with a two-out double to left-centerfield that drove in Braden Montgomery, who had doubled.
The Longhorns responded in the fifth with Kennedy’s two-run home run over the rightfield fence. Kennedy’s blast followed a leadoff single by Brown.
Stanford retook the lead in the sixth on Drew Bowser’s one-out solo home run off Gordon. Moore added the final touches to his huge game in the seventh with a two-out, two-run dinger to centerfield off reliever Charlie Hurley that plated Alberto Rios, who had doubled.
But the Longhorns, as has been their penchant over the past two months, did just enough to win. Stanford had three errors and had just one extra-base hit in its loss but expect the Cardinal to come out fighting on Sunday.
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Texas will send righthander Lebarron Johnson Jr. (8-3, 2.62) to the mound in Game 2 while Stanford will counter with its ace, lefthander Quinn Matthews (9-4, 3.65).
