Baseball completes comeback with nine-run eighth to stay alive

Friday, May 27

Oklahoma City, Okla.

7 p.m.

University of Texas

24-31

Oklahoma State

36-20

Oklahoma State

Texas

Photo by: Big 12 Conference

Baseball completes comeback with nine-run eighth to stay alive

05.28.2016 | Baseball

Box Score

The Longhorns fell behind 8-3 in the seventh but rallied for nine runs in the eighth to win it.

Box Score | Postgame Quotes | Championship Central

OKLAHOMA CITY—After allowing seven runs in the seventh to fall behind Oklahoma State 8-3, Texas Baseball broke out its biggest inning of the season to overtake the Cowboys in a 12-8 win on Friday night at Chickasaw Bricktown Ballpark. The win, which keeps the Longhorns alive in the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship, means Texas will play TCU tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. CT.

The Longhorns scored first for the third straight game during the Phillips 66 Big 12 Baseball Championship. Texas picked up its first run in the second inning when, after Kacy Clemens singled to open the inning, Bret Boswell came up two batters later to drive in the Longhorns first baseman with a single of his own.

A major highlight of the night came in the second inning when, with two outs, right fielder Patrick Mathis made a highlight reel catch to prevent an extra-base hit.

The following frame, OSU rebounded to tie it at 1-1 off Kyle Johnston, but Texas regained the lead in the fifth with a pair of runs. Jake McKenzie doubled to open the inning and came around to score on a Zane Gurwitz groundout to put Texas back out in front 2-1. Tyler Rand and Mathis then added back-to-back singles before Tres Barrera drew a walk to load them up for Clemens. The junior lifted a sac fly to right to score Rand and make it 3-1 in favor of the Longhorns.

The lead was short-lived, however, as the Cowboys put up a seven-spot off the Longhorns in the seventh to take a commanding 8-3 lead. Oklahoma State opened the inning with four straight singles to tie it up—two off Johnston and two off Nolan Kingham—before Kingham got the first out of the frame.

Travis Duke entered and got the next batter swinging to put two away before Chase Shugart came on in relief. During the next at-bat, Barrera caught the baserunner at third in a rundown but he was ruled safe at home to give the Cowboys the go-ahead run. Oklahoma State would go on to add four more runs in the inning to push the Texas deficit to 8-3.

Down but not out, the Longhorns responded in a big way.

Travis Jones led off the frame with a double to left before Bret Boswell walked. Kody Clemens then reached on a fielder's choice that loaded the bases with no outs. McKenzie followed with an RBI groundout to make it 8-4, sparking the Longhorns offense.

Gurwitz followed with a double that scored Boswell and gave the Longhorns a pair in scoring position with one out. Rand added an RBI groundout to make it 8-6 with one on and two outs.

It was with two outs that Texas did the most damage. Mathis ripped a single to left-center to score Gurwitz and the Longhorns were back within one.

After a pitching change, Barrera and Kacy Clemens drew back-to-back walks to load the bases for Jones, the 10th batter of the inning.
Jones proceeded to take the 1-0 delivery to the knee for his team-leading seventh hit by pitch of the season. The plunking brought the game even as it forced in a run.

With the game knotted at 8-8, it was Boswell's turn again. The shortstop singled through the left side to plate two and give the Longhorns the 10-8 lead. Kody Clemens followed Boswell with a two-run triple and the Longhorns closed out the eighth with a 12-8 lead.

In the ninth, Beau Ridgeway (3-0) finished out his second perfect inning of work and the Longhorns closed out the comeback with a 12-8 win.

The Longhorns will take on TCU on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Texas must defeat TCU twice in order to advance to the championship game on Sunday.

POSTGAME NOTES
•   The win is the Longhorns' first of the season when trailing after seven innings…had been 0-22 previously.
•   Texas improves to 36-27 all-time in the Big 12 Championship, tying Oklahoma (36) for the most all-time championship victories as a program.
•   Every starter registered at least one hit in the ballgame for the second straight day…before Thursday, the Longhorns had gone 53 games without doing that this season.
•   Sophomore SS Bret Boswell has hit safely in four straight games following an 0-for-13 slump…it was his first multi-RBI game since March 15 at Texas A&M…he'd had just 3 RBI total in his previous 24 games.
•   In the eighth, the Longhorns batted around for the second time in as many games and just the third time this season.
•   The nine-run inning was the largest for the Longhorns this season…their previous best was an 8-run inning on March 21 vs. UTSA…the Longhorns had not scored 9 runs in an inning since April 9, 2011 at Baylor (sixth inning).
•   After allowing an earned run on Wednesday, Ridgeway tossed two perfect frames…he's allowed just seven hits and one walk over his last 20.1 innings of work.