Missed opportunities versus ECU pushes Texas' baseball season to the brink

On3 imageby:Joe Cook06/10/22

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Teams that win during the NCAA tournament take advantage of most opportunities afforded to them, whether they be conventional chances or extra ones given by the opposing team. In game one of the Greenville super regional on Friday, the Texas Longhorns put together an offensive performance akin to many they put on the field throughout the course of the 2022 season.

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The same was true of the East Carolina Pirates, but in the pivotal eighth inning ECU’s hit rate on opportunities far exceeded that of Texas’. David Pierce’s ballclub scored two runs in the top of the eighth to cut the deficit to one, but the Pirates charged back in the bottom half with five runs of their own, including a home run that deflected off Douglas Hodo’s glove and over the fence. The purple and gold rallied to go up six runs, stymieing any chance for a Texas comeback. The Longhorns dropped game one of the series and are now on the brink of elimination following a 13-7 loss.

“They just did a good job of making plays throughout the course of the game and putting the ball in play when they needed too, but when you give up a five-spot in the eighth after an 8-7 game and you just can’t keep it close and give your team a chance in the ninth, that’s the story of the game for me.”

BOX SCORE: ECU 13, Texas 7

Opportunities not taken advantage of in the top of the eighth proved to be the late-inning difference. Texas scored two runs in the frame to make it 8-7 ECU, one run via an RBI double from Silas Ardoin, and another from a ground ball off the bat of Jack O’Dowd.

Then with Ardoin at third, Trey Faltine stepped to the plate with one out.

He skied a ball to right field that ECU’s Jacob Jenkins-Cowart camped under. Jenkins-Cowart caught the ball then fired it home. Typically aggressive as a third base coach, Pierce elected to hold Ardoin on the bag. The throw was strong but slightly up the line.

A play at the plate was the likely outcome if Ardoin went. Instead, he was stranded at third when next at bat, Pirate third baseman Alec Makarewicz made a diving play to rob Hodo of a single and keep the game at 8-7.

“I thought Makarewicz made a hell of a play, and he was in, too, because of the threat of the bunt,” Pierce said. “He timed his dive. They just did a good job of making plays throughout the course of the game and putting the ball in play when they needed too.”

As happens so often in baseball, Makarewicz received the first opportunity at the plate in the bottom of the eighth. He swung at an 0-1 pitch from Tristan Stevens that went toward left center. Hodo and Eric Kennedy converged on the ball in front of a section of rambunctious Pirate fans known as “The Jungle.” The two failed to communicate amidst the commotion and Hodo leapt in front of Kennedy to make a play on the ball. It went in and out of Hodo’s glove and over the fence, resulting in a solo shot for Makarewicz that made it 9-7 ECU.

“It was like (Jose) Conseco except with his glove and not his head,” Pierce said.

That would be the first run in a five-run eighth against a Texas bullpen that failed to control the game for the Longhorns. Relievers surrendered seven earned runs behind of starter Pete Hansen, who was not like his typical self. His 4.0-inning outing in which he allowed six runs forced Pierce to utilize six different arms to get through game one of the three-game series.

“He just didn’t have his command that he normally has,” Pierce said about Hansen. “He wasn’t hitting with the slider. Probably one of the worst starts he’s had. It’s just what it is.”

There were opportunities missed by the Texas offense but the bats still kept the Longhorns in the contest. A two-run homer from Murphy Stehly in the first gave Texas an early lead. ECU responded with three runs in the bottom half.

The Pirates scored three more in the fourth against Hansen, two via a Jacob Starling home run and one from an RBI single from Zach Agnos. They added one more in the fifth against Zane Morehouse when Bryson Worrell slugged the first pitch of the Morehouse’s outing out of the park.

Texas hit back-to-back home runs in the sixth. The first was from Ivan Melendez, who hit a towering shot over The Jungle and outside of Clark-LeClair Stadium. It was his 31st of the year, extending his program record tying the BBCOR-era record set by Kris Bryant in 2013. The second was from Stehly in the next at bat.

Hodo slugged a solo homer to right to make it 7-5 in the seventh, but ECU responded with a Josh Moylan RBI single in the bottom half to make it 8-5.

Texas then had its opportunities in the eighth but could not pounce on them like the Pirates did.

The loss puts the Longhorns down 1-0 in the best-of-three series and on the brink of elimination from the postseason in a stage prior to the College World Series for the first time since 2018, when they lost game one of the Austin super regional versus Tennessee Tech. UT charged back with two wins to advance to Omaha for the first time under Pierce four years ago.

Pierce told gathered media postgame he still plans to start left-hander Lucas Gordon on the mound for game two, which begins at 11 a.m. on Saturday. ECU head coach Cliff Godwin did not announce a starter.

No matter who the Pirates send to the mound, Texas cannot afford to let opportunities slip by like they did in the eighth inning of Friday’s game. If so, an ECU team that has lost one contest since April 29 will continue to do what it has done all season at Clark-LeClair Stadium: punish opponents for missed opportunities.

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