The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UC Irvine
No. 5 Baseball falls to UC Irvine, 9-6, in NCAA Regional championship game
06.04.2007 | Baseball
ROUND ROCK, Texas -- No. 5 Texas was doomed by three runs in the bottom of the eighth and dropped a 9-6 decision to UC Irvine in NCAA Division I Baseball Championship regional action at The Dell Diamond. The loss marked the end of the Longhorns season. UC Irvine advances to super regional action where it will face either Arizona or Wichita State.
Texas (46-17) had the game-winning run at the plate in the ninth inning but was unable to capitalize. Trailing 9-5, Travis Tucker singled and Jordan Danks followed with a double to put runners on second and third. After Kyle Russell was retired on strikes, Chance Wheeless drew a walk to load the bases and Bradley Suttle pushed a run across with a walk. Clay Van Hook struck out and Chais Fuller grounded into a fielder's choice to end the game.
When play resumed from Sunday night's washout, UC Irvine was winning 6-5 in the bottom of the seventh. After both teams went scoreless in their first at-bats, the Anteaters scored three runs in the eighth. The inning was highlighted by a two-run double by Tyler Vaughn.
Texas drew first blood in the top of the second inning. Suttle drew a leadoff walk, moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Russell Moldenhauer and scored on a double down the rightfield line by Fuller.
UC Irvine took a 3-1 lead with three runs in the bottom of the third inning. With one out, Vaughn hit a single to leftfield and moved to second base on a single up the middle by Taylor Holiday. Ben Orloff drew a walk to load the bases. Cody Cipriano doubled down the leftfield line to plate Holiday and Vaughn, staking the Anteaters to the two-run lead.
The Longhorns knotted the game in the top of the fourth inning. Wheeless hit a leadoff single, and with two outs, Fuller doubled to leftfield to put runners at second and third. Josh Prince roped a double to the left centerfield gap, plating Fuller and Wheeless to tie the score at 3-3.
Texas wrangled the lead back with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning. Suttle hit a leadoff single to rightfield. With one out, Fuller followed with a single and a passed ball put runners at second and third. With two outs, Brett Lewis rifled an 0-2 offering down the rightfield line for a two-run double, staking Texas to a 5-3 advantage.
The Anteaters reclaimed the lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. Cipriano hit a leadoff double, but was retired at third on a groundout fielder's choice by Matt Morris. Bryan Petersen hit a double to leftfield, plating Morris to cut the lead to 5-4. UC Irvine tied the game when Jeff Cusick tripled to centerfield to drive in Petersen. The go-ahead run scored when Aaron Lowenstein grounded out to second base allowing Cusick to touch home.
POSTGAME NOTES
- UC Irvine advances to the NCAA Super Regional and will take on the winner of the NCAA Wichita Regional.
- UC Irvine won the only previous meeting against Texas, defeating the Longhorns 3-1 on Saturday, June 2.
- Texas is making its 51st NCAA postseason appearance and ninth straight.
- UC Irvine is making its third NCAA Division I postseason appearance and second consecutive.
- The attendance for the regional's second game between Texas and UC Irvine was 6,331.
- The game on Sunday was delayed at 8:24 p.m. due to lightning in the area. The game resumed play at 1 p.m. on Monday, June 4.
- At the conclusion of the game the NCAA Austin Regional All-Tournament Team was announced, honoring 11 players, including Wes Etheridge (UC Irvine), Scott Gorgen (UC Irvine), Aaron Lowenstein (UC Irvine), Taylor Holiday (UC Irvine - MOP), Cody Cipriano (UC Irvine), Chais Fuller (Texas), Bradley Suttle (Texas), Nick Peoples (Texas), Ollie Linton (UC Irvine), Ryan Murphy (Brown) and Russell Moldenhauer (Texas).
Texas (46-17)
Team Notes:
- With the loss, Texas is now 66-39 all-time in NCAA Regional action.
- The Longhorns are now 25-27 all-time against current members of the Big West Conference and 0-2 against UC Irvine.
- Texas concludes the season with a season mark of 46-17 and bows out of the NCAA Tournament in the Regional round for the second straight season.
Individual Notes:
- Freshman Josh Prince's two-run, pinch-hit double in the top of the fourth inning tied his career-high for RBI in a game. Prince is now 2-for-3 in pinch hitting appearances this season and (11-for-26) with runners in scoring position.
- With his two-hit effort, senior first baseman Chance Wheeless moved into eighth-place on the UT career hits list with (241) hits. The game marked his 27th-multiple hit game of the season, tying him for the team lead with Bradley Suttle.
- Texas' game against UC Irvine marked Wheeless' 217th career game, moving the senior into sixth-place on UT's career games played list.
- Longhorns' starter Austin Wood made his 37th appearance of the season against UC Irvine, moving into a tie with J. Brent Cox (2004) for seventh-place in UT's single-season record book.
- Senior shortstop Chais Fuller's three hits and two runs scored against the Anteaters both equal career-highs.
- Senior reliever Joseph Krebs' appearance against UCI was his fourth appearance of the NCAA Regional and his 35th of the season, tying him with Huston Street (2002) for ninth-place in the UT single-season record book.
- Senior righthander Randy Boone's appearance against the Anteaters was his 106th career appearance, moving him into a tie for most appearances all-time with J. Brent Cox (2003-05). His appearance was his 41st of the season, tying him for third in UT's single-season record book with Clayton Stewart (2005).
UC Irvine (43-15-1)
Team Notes:
- With the win, UC Irvine moves to 3-4 all-time in NCAA Division I Regional play, earning all three wins this season.
- The Anteaters improve to 2-0 all-time against the Longhorns.
Individual Notes:
- With his two-run double in the bottom of the third inning, senior second baseman Cody Cipriano notched his team-best 16th multiple-RBI game of the season.
- With his single in the bottom of the third inning, junior first baseman Taylor Holiday extended his NCAA Division I school-record hitting streak to 20 games.
- Taylor Holiday's two-hit performance was his team-best 26th multiple-hit game of the season, while Cody Cipriano's two-hit effort was his 25th of the season, tying him for second on the club.
UC IRVINE POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Dave Serrano
General comments: There are not enough words to describe how I feel about these young men. Nothing is bigger than the heart of this team.
On the change in momentum when Texas scored the two runs in the 6th: Last night when Texas got those two runs, the crowd was behind them and you could feel the momentum of the game change. It's easy for teams in our situation then to think it won't work out for us, but this team didn't do that. They gave the greatest punch-back in program history.
On coming to this regional: You have to play in these kinds of atmospheres to be successful and learn how to deal with the atmosphere to win big.
On playing against Coach Augie Garrido: I tip my hat to Coach Garrido. Whether he knows it or not, I'm modeling this program after his when he was at Cal State Fullerton. I'm hoping he can look across the field and be proud of what he sees developing at UC Irvine. I think it's exactly what he had developed 30 years ago at Cal State Fullerton, when he built that program from scratch and made it the national power it is today.
RHP Scott Gorgen
On his experience: Last season during my freshman year, I went to my first regional. I thought that was the biggest experience of my life, and then we dropped the first two games. This win shows this team never gives up, and we're going after it till the end.
1B Taylor Holiday
On his experience here: This was an unbelievable experience and one that we've worked on for so long. Now it's just a step for us and it's on to the next thing.
On playing at this regional: Coach (Serrano) did a good job getting us excited to play Texas instead of us worrying about playing them. We were excited to play at the highest level of college baseball against a team with so much history.
2B Cody Cipriano
On being at this regional: We worked so hard to get to this point, so to finally win a regional and move on is what we're looking toward.
On not hosting a regional: We play our best baseball when we have a chip on our shoulder, because we don't get as much media attention or respect as other programs. We weren't really disappointed when we found out we were coming to this regional, because in order to be the best you've got to beat the best.
TEXAS POSTGAME QUOTES
Head Coach Augie Garrido
General comments: I think it's hard to get into a place you didn't think you would be. UC Irvine played the best baseball in this tournament and deserved to win. Our hats are off to them for some brilliant baseball. They were extremely well coached, highly competitive, very talented, disciplined and really on top of their game through the weekend.
I felt good about our team and their attitude from the beginning, and I still feel that way. Championship play is about doing the right thing at the right time, and they (UC Irvine) did the right thing at the right time a lot more often than we did.
There are three major points of view as I see it. The point of view from the fan, the passionate Longhorn fans, and their criteria for success is Omaha and a national championship, so this is disappointing. There's another level at The University where it becomes a balance between their performances academically and athletically, and the national championship satisfies that group as well, but it's less demanding in the balance of it all. I'm not trying to make excuses, but it's just the reality of it all. The third level is the one we care the most about, and that's our own team and staff. That's the level at which winning the national championship is certainly a goal, but we don't have to achieve perfection to get to what we are trying to accomplish with life skills.
On why the team didn't play as well as they have the rest of the year: I didn't have that sense of them losing their momentum. I thought they played a really great game with not much to gain in that last game of the Big 12 Tournament. I thought we never got the edge that you're talking about that makes this game look easy. It's about doing the right thing at the right time and we're capable, but we didn't do the right thing at the right time often enough. The fundamentals of the game got away from us. It all came from the same spirit, and that was us trying too hard.
On if the team was playing out of desperation: You didn't see the players quit. The mistakes or errors you saw were out of tension and trying too hard. They were getting out of rhythm. There's a lot on the line for these players and they want it very badly. Sometimes when you want something, you overreact to get it instead of staying in a balanced position to make a good decision.
3B Bradley Suttle
On if there was too much pressure on the team: I don't think we put too much pressure on ourselves. Obviously we wanted it really bad and we battled really hard. I'm so proud of everyone on this team. I have no regrets.
1B Chance Wheeless
On the emotions of the team: I really felt like this team had it in us to go all the way. We weren't peaking at the right time and this weekend we didn't play up to our full capabilities.
RHP Randy Boone
On how he feels about not going on any further: It's frustrating. We didn't stop playing, right up there until the 9th inning. Irvine played as well as they could all weekend long, but at the same time, I don't think we played up to our full capabilities.
