The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Nebraska
Freshman C.J Hinojosa delivers walk-off single in Baseball's 4-3 win over Nebraska
02.23.2013 | Baseball
Feb. 23, 2013
AUSTIN, Texas - Freshman shortstop C.J Hinojosa hit a walk-off single in the bottom of the ninth inning as the NR/No. 24 Texas Longhorns defeated the Nebraska Cornhuskers, 4-3, Saturday afternoon at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. The Longhorns have won both games of the weekend series and will look for the series sweep tomorrow at noon.
Nebraska (0-6) outhit Texas (5-1), 10-8, but the Longhorns drew nine walks, including an intentional walk in the bottom of the ninth to junior Mark Payton to bring up Hinojosa, who delivered the game-winning RBI.
In the ninth, Weiss smacked a one-out double into right center. After the walk to Payton, Hinojosa hit a 1-1 pitch through the middle of the infield to score Weiss for the win.
Sophomore Dillon Peters started for the Longhorns and pitched six innings, allowing six hits, one earned run and struck out four in the no-decision. Chad Hollingsworth (2-0) was credited with the win after recording the final out of the eighth inning as the Longhorns turned three double plays.
Texas struck first in the bottom the second. Junior catcher Jacob Felts walked and stole second with one out. After sophomore Brooks Marlow grounded out and pushed Felts to third, sophomore Codey McElroy ripped a two-out double down the left field line, scoring Felts to put Texas up 1-0.
Stell led off the Texas fourth inning with a double to right field. Weiss drew a walk on a pitch that got away from the catcher, allowing Stell to advance to third. Payton then laid down a sacrifice bunt RBI to score Stell to extend the lead to 2-0.
With two outs in the Nebraska fifth, sophomore Austin Darby hit a pinch-hit single to right field and advanced to second when Payton threw the ball past McElroy. Senior Brian Peters drove in Darby to make it 2-1 with a stand-up double to the warning track in left field
Nebraska tied it up, 2-2, in the seventh off a Blake Headley RBI single. During the inning, Scheffert singled on Dillon Peters' last pitch of his outing. Scheffert then advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt from Jake Placzek. After an infield single from Darby put runners on the corners, Headley smacked a pinch-hit single up the middle off sophomore Cameron Cox, scoring Scheffert from third. In the home half of the seventh, junior Weston Hall, Stell, and Weiss all walked to bring up Mark Payton with two outs. Payton walked on four pitches from sophomore pitcher Aaron Bummer to score Hall and give the Longhorns the go-ahead run at 3-2.
The lead didn't last long for Texas as Nebraska struck back in the top half of the eighth. After a leadoff walk and single put runners on the corners, Kash Kalkowski hit a sacrifice-fly to Hall in center field to score Christensen from third to square the score at 3-3. Freshman pitcher Toller Boardman closed out the inning, forcing Sanguinetti into a groundout to Marlow. Darby led off the Husker ninth with a bunt single, but Boardman was able to turn a key 1-6-3 double play as the Longhorns gained momentum before Hinojosa's heroics in the bottom of the ninth.
Tomorrow's game will be broadcast live on Longhorn Network with radio on AM 1300 The Zone. Gametracker live stats will be available on TexasSports.com with live Twitter updates @Texas_Baseball.
Notes: C.J Hinojosa and Mark Payton are batting .429 (9-for-21) for the season as the Longhorns are batting .302 as a team through the first six games...Texas' 5-1 start on the season is its best mark since starting the 2009 season (6-0)...Texas is now 30-28 against Nebraska all-time in baseball...Texas has stolen 15 bases this season while only allowing two stolen bases...Augie Garrido needs 41 wins (1,852) to tie Gordon Gillespie for the most wins (1,893) by any college baseball coach at any level.
NU 000-010-110---3-10-0 TEXAS 011-000-101---4-8-1
Note: 1 out, 2 runners LOB when the game ended.
Records: Texas (5-1), Nebraska (0-6) WP - Hollingsworth (2-0) LP - Vogt (0-2) T - 3:11 ATT - 6,718
DeLeon, Bublitz (7), Bummer (7), Roeder (8), Hawkins (8), Vogt (8) and Lubach. D. Peters, Marlow (7), Duke (7), Cox (7), Urban (8), Boardman (8), Hollingworth (9) and Felts.
Post-Game Quotes
Texas head coach Augie Garrido
On using the bullpen today: We did go deep into the bullpen today, but they were for short periods of time, which is like throwing a bullpen. Are we going to do that all the time? I do not know; we are going to do what we have to do. You have to win these types of close games to give the team confidence and support that they can build on. Every day is different in this game, in many ways they out played us today, they played hard, they played well in hitting, defense, and pitching. (DeLeon) was the only pitcher that pitched the way that he did, he used a line of off speed pitches, backward pitches. He made every courageous pitch, the bases were loaded at 3-2, he froze the hitter then threw two sliders to (Weston) Hall in a key situation. No other pitching staff has had that kind of courage, to come in and pitch backwards in key situations with a game on the line. I think that speaks well for them, they executed in a place where it is difficult to execute those types of things. They played a fearless game.
On how a close win helps the team moving forward: It does help a lot, it matters that is why we used so many pitchers. Every time you lose, it is a blow to your confidence. Confidence is fragile at a time when there are so many new players in the system; they are anxious, they are nervous, they are not confident at this point, they cannot rock and roll with the ups and downs of the game, the ups and down of the approval or the disapproval of the fans. So every time that you win one of this games, it is support to the fact that if you keep learning form the things that can go wrong you can become better and better, but it takes a lot of confidence, willpower, and trust.
Junior pitcher Dillon Peters
On his pitching performance: I learned from Parker (French) last night, he gave me some good feedback, and so did Jacob (Felts). We go out there with the same game plan; we have to pound the zone and work, pitch constant basically; that is all our game plans. Today I was fortunate enough to have good plays behind me to cruise through those innings.
On seeing the team come through in the last inning: It was awesome to let the game be decided in the C.J's hands, once we found out that they were letting Payton walk, we knew that C.J was going to get it done.
Freshman shortstop C.J Hinojosa
On his mindset of his last at bat in the ninth inning: My mindset was to go up there and clear my head. I have had four at-bats before that, two were good and two were bad. I went up there with a clear mind and had fun with it.
On coming through after the Payton intentional walk: It means a lot because a lot of teams have respect for our three and four guys (Weiss and Payton), those guys have done great the last two years that they have been here.
On the takeaway: We can take a lot away; we were tied then won in the last inning. Everyone had their rally hats on and were having fun. This game, like all games, is a learning experience for us.
