It’s not 1950, but don’t tell Texas that.
The Longhorns threw it way back by running out of the dugout sporting their retro uniforms from the ‘49-’50 seasons when they won their first two College World Series titles in back-to-back fashion.
Although the coaches made the call to bring out the throwbacks Wednesday night, head coach David Pierce said the deciding factor came down to their win over Richmond Tuesday night.
One night later, Longhorns jumped out to an early lead at UFCU Disch-Falk Field and never looked back as run after run crossed the plate in a 15-0 win over Texas A&M Corpus Christi. A ten-run run rule was called in the seventh inning.
“If we win last night then we wear them tonight,” Pierce said. “I think the kids love them. We weren’t going to wear them if we didn’t win, so I guess you could call it a reward.”
Texas isn’t coming off back-to-back national title wins 67 years later, but its uniforms and performance would make you think otherwise.
Pierce said if his team can get 15 runs and a shutout, the throwbacks could possibly be back in action in future games.
“I’ll take two shutouts and 15 runs anytime,” Pierce said. “But the main thing is us playing consistent baseball, pitching and throwing strikes … And so I’ve been impressed with our preparation the last few days and our approach at home plate.”
The Longhorns got to work right away. Texas jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning following back-to-back RBI doubles from freshman Austin Todd and redshirt junior Bret Boswell.
But the Longhorn bats were just getting started. They took their four-run lead after the first inning and tripled it in the second. Although “The Disch” was not anywhere near maximum capacity, the Longhorn fans had a lot to cheer about following back-to-back-to-back RBI’s, including junior Patrick Mathis’ three-run homer that gave Texas a 12-0 lead after two innings.
But Pierce didn’t let the team slack mentally.
“Throughout the evening we’re talking about getting better and improvement as the game is being played,” Pierce said. “It’s not just ‘we’re up big so we get to relax. It’s ‘we’re still concentrating and trying to
get better.’”
Texas’ pitching matched the explosive offense. Sophomore Nick Kennedy threw six strikeouts, only allowing one hit in four innings pitched. The left hander only needed 58 pitches to retire the 13 batters he faced.
“The thing about Nick is he wasn’t throwing, he was pitching,” Pierce said. “He has great stuff. He had great tempo and he controlled the game. I thought he was outstanding.”
The Islanders had one last chance to negate the run-rule but came up runless in the top of the seventh, resulting in the game’s conclusion.
The Longhorns (9-6) have just one day of rest before they host UCLA in a three game series at UFCU Disch-Falk this weekend.
“The thing with UCLA, it’s a lot like Stanford, they can really pitch,” Pierce said. “They’re playing very good defense and pitching very good. I think it’s going to be low scoring games. I think it’s going to be two teams really trying to see who they are when they’re in tight ballgames.”
