The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Drew Stubbs: The second-most important play of the day
06.22.2005 | Baseball
OMAHA, Neb. -- Chance Wheeless went from hurt to hero. Texas got a strong start from a freshman pitcher for the second time in three CWS games. UT went 0-4 against Baylor prior to the NCAA Tournament before the Longhorns handed their Big 12 rival two losses in the College World Series. Buck Cody and Seth Johnston will be part of three different UT teams to play in the CWS Championship series.
There are plenty of storylines from Wednesday night's CWS win over Baylor, which propelled Texas to its second straight CWS Championship Series and third in the last four years. But Wheeless may never have had his moment had teammate Drew Stubbs not hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning, then made his most significant of two diving catches on the day in the top of the ninth.
In the eighth, Stubbs scored Nick Peoples with a sacrifice fly to right field, which tied the game at 3-3. Then, with two on and one out in the top half of the ninth, Baylor's Paul Witt blooped J. Brent Cox's first delivery into shallow center, setting the stage for Stubbs to make a diving stab that robbed Witt of a hit and Baylor the potential go-ahead run as Reid Brees was running on contact only to be thrown out at second base on the play.
"The ball was hit pretty softly over the shortstop's head and I actually almost gave up on it and played it on the bounce," Stubbs said. "As I came in, it just hung in the air and I was able to dive and make the play. When I looked up, it kind of surprised me to see the runner rounding third."
With each game Texas plays, Stubbs' highlight reel continues to grow. Similar to his catch in the ninth, his combination of speed and instinct helped Stubbs flag down a humpback line drive that many center fielders would play on a hop to preserve a 5-0 shutout of No. 1 seed Tulane on Monday.
"It's something that you take for granted when you have a guy like Drew out there every day," senior Seth Johnston said. "He actually covers a lot more ground than it looks like. If he doesn't catch that ball, a run scores and that's the difference in the ballgame."
Stubbs and his teammates have come up with clutch catches to go along with solid pitching and timely hitting.
"If the ball puts you in a possible situation to make a play, right now we are making all those plays," Johnston added. "That's huge for our pitching staff."
Right-hander Kenn Kasparek allowed just four hits, two earned runs and tied a career high with six strikeouts over 6.1 innings during his CWS debut on Wednesday evening. And because of Stubbs and company's defense, Wheeless was able to deliver Seth Johnston and Buck Cody back to the championship series for a third time - not a bad gift for Cody's 23rd birthday.