It did not take long for shortstop C.J Hinojosa to record his first signature moment with the Longhorns.
The standout freshman laced a walk-off RBI single to center field in the bottom of the ninth Saturday to score Erich Wiess and give Texas a 4-3 win over the Cornhuskers. Weiss doubled with one out in the inning to get into scoring position, and Nebraska pitcher Dylan Vogt intentionally walked Mark Payton to bring Hinojosa up to the plate.
Hinojosa, who went 2-for-5 in the game and is now hitting .429, had a brief conversation with head coach Augie Garrido before his final at bat and tried not to overthink as he went to the plate.
“My mindset was just go up there and clean my head,” Hinojosa said. “I had four at bats before that, two were good, two were bad. Augie calmed me down and I just went up there with a clear mind and had fun with it.“
The Longhorns never trailed but blew a pair of leads over the course of the game. Codey McElroy kicked off the scoring for the Longhorns with an RBI double down the third baseline to score Jacob Felts in the second inning, and Texas added a run in the third on an RBI sacrifice bunt by Mark Payton to take an early 2-0 lead.
Nebraska answered with a two-out RBI double by Bryan Peters in the fifth inning and a pinch-hit RBI single by Blake Headley to tie the score. Texas retook the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the seventh on a bases loaded walk to Payton, but Nebraska knotted the score again with a sac fly by Kash Kalkowski in the top of the eighth.
Garrido was pleased with the resiliency of his team, and he said that the ability to overcome adversity and win is key to the confidence of his team.
“Every time you win one of these types of games, it is support to the fact that if you keep your commitment to learning from the things that go wrong, you can become better, and better and better,” Garrido said.
Starting pitcher Dillon Peters had another strong outing for the Longhorns in his second start of the year, limiting the Cornhuskers to two runs (one earned) while striking out four in six plus innings. Six relievers appeared in the game for the Longhorns and combined to allow one run in three innings.
The Longhorns (5-1) will look to complete the three-game sweep of Nebraska (0-5) on Saturday. The game is scheduled to begin at 12:00 p.m. CT at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.