Augie Garrido got his 700th win as the Texas head coach as the Longhorns battled back from a two run deficit to beat the Nebraska Cornhuskers 8-2 on Friday night.
“This sport is the ultimate team sport, quite honestly…The players, I recognize it’s about them, the coaches, the staff members,” Garrido said. “I don’t even know what percentage of credit I should take, if any. I do know I’m halfway to where Cliff [Gustafson] was, the last coach, so that puts it into perspective.”
Texas (4-1) started the night slow offensively against a winless, struggling Nebraska (0-5) team. Down 2-1, sophomore first baseman Codey McElroy stepped up to the plate in the sixth with the bases loaded. McElroy quickly went down 0-2 before battling back to a full count. On the next pitch, McElroy pulled a hard grouder past third base to plate both Eric Weiss and C.J Hinojosa to grab the lead.
The offense woke up late in the game to secure the lead as the Longhorns put up five runs in the eighth inning. Second baseman Brooks Marlow scored first on an RBI single by Weston Hall with two outs. McElroy scored next with bases loaded on a passed ball before Taylor Stell was walked to load the bases again. The Nebraska pitcher hit Weiss to score another run before junior Mark Payton landed a 2 RBI single up the middle to put the lead at 8-2.
On the mound, sophomore Parker French started for the Longhorns. French started off lights out on the mound, retiring the first three batters on a ground out and two strike outs. In the second, he saw some trouble, giving up four straight base hits and two runs with only one out. Hinojosa then turned a double play to get out of the inning.
The next few innings were calm for French who didn’t surrender another run before being relieved by junior Ty Marlow in the seventh.
Junior Corey Knebel came in to close for Texas at the top of the eighth and finally looked like the closer that everyone expected him to be this season. Despite walking two batters and surrendering on hit, Knebel struck out six batters in two innings of work.
“He’s still Corey Knebel,” French said. “We know who he is. He’s going to be that for us this year.”
The Longhorns return to the field Saturday afternoon at 1 pm for game two against the Nebraska Cornhuskers.
