ND capitalizes on Texas mistakes, pushing Longhorns to brink of elimination after 7-3 loss

OMAHA, Neb. — The College World Series requires the best from teams in order to advance. Pitchers have to compete in every at bat and throw successful pitches. Mistakes have to be minimized in the field and elsewhere. Hitters at the top of the order have to perform like they did in the rest of the season, or else contributions have to come from the entire lineup.

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Notre Dame had all those things on Friday. Texas did not. The Fighting Irish topped the Longhorns, 7-3, thanks to a sound performance in every phase.

“They deserved to win,” Texas head coach David Pierce said. “I thought they were better than us tonight.”

Irish starter John Michael Bertrand limited Texas to three runs in 5.1 innings. Relievers Alex Rao and Jack Findlay shut out the Longhorns over the remaining 3.2 innings, surrendering only a walk. That trio kept the Longhorns from recording an extra base hit for the first time all season.

The entire night, the top four of the Texas order consisting of Douglas Hodo III, Eric Kennedy, Ivan Melendez, and Murphy Stehly struggled versus Bertrand, Rao, and Findlay. They combined to go 3-for-14 with five strikeouts, one walk, and two RBI.

It wasn’t just the top of the order, either. No Longhorn had a multi-hit game. There were some loud outs, especially at the bottom of the order from Dylan Campbell and Trey Faltine, but the Irish played great defense and threw more quality pitches at the most important moments.

In a critical juncture in the seventh with Texas down 6-3, Kennedy came to the plate versus Findlay with a runner on and two outs. If he reached base, Melendez would have been at the plate as the tying run. Kennedy swung through a 2-2 pitch to end the frame, and extinguish what was one of few promising offensive opportunities for the Longhorns.

“I know we were ready,” Pierce said. “We had an extra period of work, and our preparation was right, but just wasn’t our day.”

Texas couldn’t put up any crooked numbers against the Irish pitching trio. The first Longhorn run came in the third when Kennedy brought home Campbell from third on a sacrifice bunt to make it a 2-1 game. The second run came when Hodo III drove in Campbell with a RBI single in the fifth. The third and final run came in the sixth when Stehly scored on a wild pitch.

After the fifth inning, the Notre Dame lead was always at least three runs thanks to steady offense against Texas starter Pete Hansen and reliever Tristan Stevens.

For the second time in as many starts, Hansen struggled to pitch like he had for most of the year. He surrendered a first-inning home run to Jared Miller, then Notre Dame scored one run in the third and another in the fourth via fielder’s choices.

The three-run Irish fifth broke the game open, albeit with some controversy to start. With runners on the corners and one out, Spencer Myers laid down a bunt in an attempt to score Jack Brannigan from third. Hansen fielded the ball barehanded and tossed it to Silas Ardoin at the plate, who applied the tag for the out. Notre Dame challenged the call, and replay found enough evidence to overturn and rule Brannigan safe.

“The one at the plate, to me it looked very difficult to overturn,” Pierce said. “Just couldn’t see where they had enough, or conclusive evidence, to actually change the call. But evidently they did and that was a factor, because we get out of the inning, potentially, and give up two instead of three.”

The second Irish run of the inning came via a single from Zack Prajzner. Hansen recorded an out before Pierce took the ball from him to bring in Stevens. The 4.1-inning outing was the second-shortest of Hansen’s 2022 campaign, beaten only by his 4.0-inning appearance in the super regional.

Notre Dame had contributions up-and-down the lineup versus Hansen, with six earned run and nine hits off the Texas ace. Postgame, Pierce mentioned Hansen hadn’t been effective in recent weeks in an area critical to his success.

“I just think that he’s just not getting the arm side (location),” Pierce said. “I know he’s cutting the ball, and just working around it a little bit, and his slider hasn’t been as sharp either. He’s frustrated about it. On the back end of the season, I’m sure he could be a little tired, fatigued. He’s not going to go there and use that as an excuse. He just hasn’t been as sharp, and I can’t pinpoint why.”

Hansen was replaced by Tristan Stevens, who delivered a decent 4.2-inning outing that saved the Texas bullpen from a taxing night. However, the start to his outing was was inauspicious, as he balked before even throwing a pitch when he faked a throw to third base while still on the rubber without a defender there, bringing in a run to make it 6-3 Irish. Pierce mentioned it was the result of a miscommunication.

Stevens later surrendered a ninth-inning homer to Carter Putz to put the score at its final tally.

Texas has now lost in the opening round of the College World Series in its fifth-straight appearance. The Longhorns did battle back to the bracket final last year after dropping game one, but ultimately couldn’t overcome the significant challenge.

If they’re to repeat that feat this year, the Longhorns must defeat rival Texas A&M at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The stakes are always high in Omaha. They might be higher with the longtime participants of an in-state feud fighting for their College World Series lives.

The margins for errors, however, will be very small. For Texas to survive, it’ll have to find space within those margins, something it could not do on Friday night.