Baseball homers twice in the 9th for 6-5, comeback victory at Baylor

Saturday, May 16

Waco, Texas

3 p.m.

University of Texas

25-24, 10-12

Baylor

20-29, 8-14

Texas

Baylor

Baseball homers twice in the 9th for 6-5, comeback victory at Baylor

05.16.2015 | Baseball

Box Score

C.J Hinojosa and Tres Barrera went back-to-back to lift the Longhorns

WACO, Texas – Trailing 5-4 heading to the ninth inning, the Texas baseball team got clutch, back-to-back home runs from C.J Hinojosa and Tres Barrera to take game one of its series at Baylor, 6-5, Saturday afternoon.

The Longhorns (25-24, 10-12 Big 12) hit four homers on the day as Hinojosa went deep twice, also capping back-to-back jacks behind Collin Shaw in the third inning.

Down to its last three outs, Hinojosa ensured Texas wouldn't go quietly. With an 0-2 count, the junior drilled a pitch to left center field that Baylor's Logan Brown raced out to the wall for before jumping to see it go just over his glove. Barrera then worked a 3-1 count and crushed a no doubter well over the fence in left field for his team-high eighth homer of the year.

Lefty reliever Kirby Bellow (3-1) came up huge in the ninth to preserve the win. After allowing a leadoff double, Bellow retired 2-3-4 in the Baylor order on a comebacker and two swinging strikeouts to earn the victory.

The Texas lineup produced 13 hits on the afternoon, with three coming from both Hinojosa and Joe Baker while Shaw and Barrera added two each. Baylor (20-29, 8-14 Big 12) was paced by left fielder Kameron Esthay who was 3-for-5 with a homer.

Looking to set up its pitching for a run in the Big 12 Tournament, Texas trotted out all three weekend starters in Saturday's game. Parker French, who is expected to start the first game of the tournament on Wednesday, tossed a prescribed two innings and was followed by Ty Culbreth (3 IP) and Connor Mayes (2.1 IP).

Playing their first game in 13 days after a layoff for finals, errors were costly as the Longhorns let an early 3-1 lead slip away. Baylor took advantage of five Texas miscues, with four playing a role in the Bears' last four runs that put them in front 5-3.

In the fifth, a fielding error and two bunt singles loaded the bases for Baylor's Adam Toth who delivered a single through the right side to score two. After the cutoff throw was delivered to second base in an effort to get Toth, the ball bounced away from Hinojosa and allowed another run to score, making it 4-3 Baylor.

An inning later, a walk and two errors on one play when Michael Cantu attempted to throw out the base runner stealing set the table for a RBI single by Justin Arrington.

Texas, though, would battle back. A pair of walks in the eighth gave the Longhorns a runner in scoring position and Joe Baker delivered his third hit of the day, a RBI single through the left side to cut the deficit to 5-4, setting up the ninth inning heroics.

Texas had produced a run right out of the gate when Baker led off the game with a single, moved to third on a sacrifice and wild pitch and scored on a RBI single from Hinojosa.

The Bears tied it up, 1-1, in the bottom of the second when Esthay hit a solo homer out to right field, the only run surrendered by French in his two innings of work.

Texas led off the third with back-to-back jacks from Shaw and Hinojosa to go back in front.

Texas and Baylor are set to conclude the series with a doubleheader that gets underway at 1 p.m. Sunday.

QUOTES

Head coach Augie Garrido

On baseball not always having to be pretty: No. Thirteen days without infield and outfield showed up for sure. I was impressed though with how locked in the hitters were. They didn't swing at a lot of bad pitches and Joe Baker got some timely hits with runners in scoring position. We overcame the imperfections and that's the difference between winning and losing. We're not going to be perfect – seldom do you play a game that is perfect.

On today's win showing some life: Yeah, and that's what we were trying to get back into – get the demons out. Losing becomes habitual just like winning becomes habitual. You find ways to lose and pretty soon you see yourself in that light. That was a big win today because we overcame the adversity we created and the runs that they had as a result of it.

On the decision to throw all three starters on Saturday: The idea of it was to get these starters out there early so that – they haven't pitched against hitters in 13 days. We didn't want to wear them out. Parker only going two innings is because he's going to start the first game [of the Big 12 Tournament]. Then with the other two guys you go three innings because they're on four days' rest and five days' rest.

Junior SS C.J Hinojosa

On the back-to-back home runs in the ninth: We worked on it in practice the last two days – just staying focused and staying with our plan. We went up there today and hit some balls hard and had the chance to have two back-to-back home runs in one game. It was key to us winning.

On if the time off helped: I think it did. We came back with a clear head and started the season all over again. Time off is always good but we were all ready to get back out here and go to work.

NOTES

- Texas got its first win of the season when trailing after eight innings (previously 0-16).

- Texas improved to 13-3 when scoring in the first inning and 17-6 when scoring first.

- Shaw and Hinojosa hit back-to-back home runs in the third inning, marking the second time this season Texas has done it (also Tres Barrera and Brooks Marlow vs. Incarnate Word, March 10). Before this season, the Longhorns hadn't hit back-to-back homers since May 9, 2010 (Russell Moldenhauer and Kevin Keyes). Hinojosa and Barrera then went back-to-back again in the ninth.

- Saturday marked the ninth time this year the Longhorns had multiple home runs, and Texas has a 8-1 record in those games.

- Four Longhorns had multi-hit efforts Saturday afternoon. Baker went 3-for-6 for his sixth of the season, Hinojosa was 3-of-5 for his ninth of the year, Shaw was 2-of-4 for his 11th and Barrera was 2-of-5 for his 14th.