Baseball’s comeback bid comes up short in 5-4 loss to Oregon State

Friday, May 29

Dallas, Texas

1:30 p.m.

University of Texas

30-26

Oregon State

38-17-1

Texas

Oregon State

Baseball’s comeback bid comes up short in 5-4 loss to Oregon State

05.29.2015 | Baseball

Box Score

Brooks Marlow was 2-for-3 with a two-run, game-tying home run in the eighth inning of the loss

DALLAS -- Trailing 4-2 with two outs in the top of the eighth inning, Brooks Marlow crushed a game-tying two-run home run, but the Beavers fought back for a run in their half of the eighth to prevail 5-4 in the opening game of the NCAA Dallas Regional from Horner Ballpark on Friday afternoon.

Texas (30-26) found themselves down 4-1 heading to the seventh inning, but a Ben Johnson sacrifice fly RBI and the Marlow blast knotted the score at 4-4. However, the Beavers (39-16-1) were resilient, fighting right back to score the game-winning run in the bottom half of the eighth on a Kyle Nobach RBI double into right center that scored Joey Jansen.

Beaver closer Mitch Hickey (1.98 ERA) then earned his 11th save of the year by tossing a scoreless ninth inning despite a lead off walk to Bret Boswell. Following the walk, Hickey retired Ben Johnson on a hard liner to center and induced Joe Baker into a hard hit a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.

Marlow led the Texas offense that managed nine hits, going 2-for-3 with two runs including the two-run homer. Baker also had two hits in the contest, Johnson and Tres Barrera had base knocks and a RBI each and Big 12 Tournament hero Zane Gurwitz provided a crucial two-out infield single prior to Marlow's long ball, along with a highlight reel catch to rob OSU of a home run in the seventh inning.

Texas starter Parker French (2.57 ERA) pitched well, but was pestered with five two out hits en route to allowing four earned runs over his six innings of work. French struck out four and did not allow an extra base hit, but OSU was able to string together singles in the fourth, fifth and six innings to touch him up.

The game-winning run was charged to Kirby Bellow (3-2, 1.30 ERA) after surrendering a leadoff walk in the eighth. Jake McKenzie entered for Bellow and after a sacrifice bunt, allowed the double to Nobach and walked two before striking out his final two batters to keep it a one run game.

Oregon State ace Andrew Moore (1.91 ERA) turned in a strong performance, allowing four earned runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out eight over 7 2/3 innings, but it was reliever Sheldon Church (1-0) who was credited with the victory after retiring the final batter in the eighth inning.

Pitching dominated the first three frames, as French struck out four Beavers while allowing just three hits and Moore faced just one over the minimum, issuing only a walk.

Baker led off the top of the fourth with a single to right center for the Horns' first hit of the game. C.J Hinojosa then executed a sacrifice bunt to move Baker to second, and Barrera smacked a 1-0 offering right back up the box for an RBI single to make it 1-0 UT. The Longhorns, though, missed an opportunity to put up a crooked number when they left the bases loaded following a single by Collin Shaw and a walk to Marlow.

The Beavers fired back in their half of the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. With one down, French hit a batter and OSU followed with three consecutive singles to pull ahead by a run. Texas avoided falling further behind with a 6-4-3 double play, one of its three double plays turned on the day, to end the frame when runners were on first and second.

Three consecutive singles again by OSU in the fifth, this time all with two down, extended its lead to 3-1, and a two-out RBI knock from Michael Gretler in the sixth inning pushed the Beaver lead to 4-1.

The Horns bounced back with a run in the seventh to make it 4-2 on a sacrifice fly from Johnson, and Oregon State stuck with Moore in the eighth inning who quickly retired the first two batters quickly.

Then, Gurwitz beat out an infield single on a 1-2 pitch to set the stage for Marlow's tying homer, but Oregon State fired back with the game-winning double in the eighth and shut the Horns down in the ninth to seal the 5-4 win.

Texas squares off with the loser of tonight's Dallas Baptist vs. Virginia Commonwealth match up tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. in an elimination game.

QUOTES

Head coach Auggie Garrido

Opening Statement

Extremely disappointing, but that's been our Friday several times this year. It's disappointing in the result, but the effort was there, and the will to win was there and I thought both teams played hard, played well. The separation was as a result of two strike hitting and two out hitting and the RBIs with runners in scoring position when we needed them. We got one out of the rally that we started early, with a base hit there with the bases loaded would've made a huge difference, but we didn't sustain it, but the fight was there. Proud of the team, I think they did a really great job battling to win the game and perform offensively and defensively and as a team, very proud of them. Disappointing, but not discouraging.

Why not bring Connor Mayes back for the 8^thinning?

The left handed hitters and we felt [Kirby Bellow] would be a good choice. In hindsight it cost us a lot and he got behind on the second hitter as well, but he has been very good in those situations against left handed hitters.

Why is Kacy Clemens in the lineup over Michael Cantu?

There's nothing more to it than Cantu struggling offensively and isn't as good as a defensive first basemen as KC is. With Parker pitching we didn't want to give away any bases. Our infield has to be the best possible defense we can put out there.

Have you seen any catches better than the one Zane Gurwitz made?

Well, Collin Shaw is in the running for all that for sure, but we don't have a chance to make that play at home because the fence is so much higher, but that's as good as it gets at the time he made it especially. It picked us up and put us in a good position.

What was the conversation about the umpire during the bottom of the 8^th inning?

I couldn't figure out, the gut that they substituted went to first base and then he came back and then I don't know what happened to him. Did he bat? Decided to hit? So is he reporting into first base or is he hitting, or what's he doing here? How can you do both? He (The umpire) said "well I don't know". Somebody's got to know.

Have you decided who is going to start on Saturday?

No, I have to talk about it with Skip, we had a lot of people in the bullpen. No, you're in a situation where you've got a five game journey ahead, four more games ahead of you. There's 16 of these tournaments going on, you'll see two or three teams that lose on the first day win, before it's over. It'll get done throughout the country; this might as well be one of them.

They are very well coached. I say that, because of the two strike adjustments they made, they hit with confidence with two strikes, they hit with confidence with runners in scoring position and they were satisfied to be themselves. They're not a power baseball team, they're an efficient baseball team based on quality at bats and pecking away at you until they score runs and that's there game, but they play it well. They play it very well. The play the first basemen made on CJ (Hinojosa), the defensive play that was outstanding, the play at center field on Ben's (Johnson) ball was outstanding, so they're a defensive team that has been very well coached, very efficient in what they do, very confident in the kind of game they're going to play, and they play it well. They played it against an excellent pitcher today, Parker French.

Did the strike zone bother players?

I don't think so, I think it was the quality of the pitcher and I think our hitters were trying to get a sense of how he was going to pitch. From the second time around I think all of the hitters made good adjustments and took quality at bats. They just wanted to see what he was all about and what he's all about is very good.

Sr. RHP Parker French

Despite grounders did you feel well?

I felt like my stuff was really good today. The best it's felt in a while. If you would've told me that there would've been one out in the air and the rest were on the ground or strikeouts I would've that we would've been successful today. That's just baseball. We didn't make any errors behind any plates, solid defense, they just had mores ball find holes than we did.

On Oregon State matching the Longhorn's intensity:

I think we came out with a lot of good energy today. We faced a really good pitcher; we did a really good job of just grounding out at bats against him making it tough. For example Brooks got a big hit off him. So I think the energy was there, the attitude was there, the confidence was there. It's just baseball is a funny game sometime, it knocks you down when you play well and have the right attitude.

Talk about the rain fall and have you ever seen a helicopter over a baseball field before?

I think that's the first time I've seen a real helicopter in my entire life, but not to dry off a baseball field, no. That's just baseball, it's an outdoor sport. You've got to deal with weather. Things can delayed, I've had a number of starts get pushed back to Saturday or weird stuff happening so you just got to roll with the punches and go out there and compete when it's time.

Have you seen any catches better than the one Zane Gurwitz made and how did it help momentum?

It definitely turned it around a little bit for us and it saved a run. To answer it is probably one of the best I've seen. Just the momentum change for us in the dugout kind of got hyped up a little bit and the homerun the next inning made everything feel like it was going our way and then the game of baseball can turn around and just punch you in the face, but it's how you react to it. I feel we played well enough to win today.

Sr. 2B Brooks Marlow

Did the hit feel reminiscent of last year's run and that things would come together and you all would find a way to win?

Yeah, just trying to get things started for this team. We've been through a lot all year long and to be able to bounce back after hitting the home run and get the momentum back a little bit, and then they found some holes in the eighth inning and you know it's baseball that's the way it's going to go.

How poor are the playing conditions in right field?

I guess you can see by Collin's (Shaw) uniform. It was pretty bad out there, but nobody better to have out there in that kind of stuff than Shaw. Nothing bothers him. It's a big affect outfield. You can't come in and throw people out because you have to get your feet underneath you. Balls wet, but Shaw fought it out. It's pretty wet out there.

How important is this next game, one last shot at Omaha?

I say all the games are important. Definitely for us it's win or go home, but we're not thinking about going home in our mind. We have the team, we have the pitching, we have the hitters, we have the defense to win this whole thing and proceed later in the season. We're going to come out, we're going to fight and give it everything we got and after the night inning and third out we'll see what happens.

GAME NOTES

• Out of the nine regionals Texas has won in the Augie Garrido era at Texas, five have come when UT lost one game.

• After outscoring Oregon State 3-1 today, Texas has now outscored opponents 81-34 in the seventh and eighth innings this season.

• The Longhorns turned three double plays in today's game, giving them 54 on the season (Third in Big 12). Thirteen of these 54 (24.1%) double plays have come when Parker French is on the mound (two of three today).

• Texas scored first for the sixth consecutive game today, winning the previous five. The Horns are 22-7 on the year when scoring first.

• Even with non-optimal conditions, neither team committed an error this afternoon. Texas has just three errors over its last six games while its opponents have committed nine.

• The Longhorn pitching staff has a 2.25 ERA over five post season games, not far off from the squads 1.72 mark in 15 post season contests in 2014.

• UT is averaging 4.8 runs per game over its last eight games, six of them victories.

• With a career record of 1,950-918-9 after today, Garrido will be looking for win number 800 at Texas (799-393-2) tomorrow at 11 a.m.

• Despite allowing four earned runs today, Parker French still holds a 2.66 career post season ERA (13 runs in 44 innings).

• With Brooks Marlow's homer today, the Longhorns now have 41 long balls on the year, nearly double their total in 2014 (22).

• Marlow moved to third on the team in home runs (6) and multi-RBI games (7) after the two-run homer today.

• With two hits today, Baker is now on a season-best nine game hitting streak. Gurwitz has reached safely in each of the last 13 contests after his eighth inning single today.

• With two assists today, Marlow now needs just two assists to move into second place on the schools career list. With 659, he trails only Bill Bates (660) and Spike Owen (679).

• Kirby Bellow was charged with his first earned run in his last 14 appearances today after walking the lead off man in the eighth inning.