The outfield was a little busier with several home runs on Tuesday (Williams / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
While their high-round MLB draft picks were stifling the opposing offenses on the mound, Mississippi State and Florida broke out the whoopin’ sticks and showed off some old fashion SEC gorilla ball at the dish. The Bulldogs and Gators combined to hit three no-doubt-about-it home runs on their way to outscoring North Carolina and Texas 18-3 on day four of the 2018 College World Series.
Mississippi State kicked things off at 10:15 a.m. with a 12-2 thumping of No. 6 overall seed North Carolina. It’s true that the final score was indicative of how close this game actually was considering the Bulldogs used an eight-run eighth inning to open the floodgates on what was a 4-2 ballgame entering the frame. All of that was extra credit, however, as the damage done by designated hitter Jordan Westburg in the top of the second inning ended up being more than enough to put the ‘Dawgs in the driver’s seat in Bracket One. With two outs in the frame, the freshman 9-hole hitter launched two-strike mistake by North Carolina right-hander Austin Bergner halfway up the bleachers behind the left field bullpen for a go-ahead grand slam that put his team up 4-2.
Westburg hit just one long ball in 111 at-bats this season prior to his second inning blast. The one he hit on Tuesday was worth every run it put on the board.
“I think it’s something you always dream about,” he said. “With the way the season went, it’s kind of hard to imagine something like that, but it was unbelievable. It’s a moment that every ball player wants to go through. And I was lucky enough to experience that.”
The true freshman from New Braunfels, Texas added a three-run double down the left field line to cap off Mississippi State’s eighth inning of unnecessary punishment. He went 3-for-4 on the day with two runs scored and tied the all-time College World Series record for runs batted in with seven.
Florida didn’t tie any records, but they did show up to the SEC bomb party. Jonathan India unloaded a three-run shot to left to turn a two-run ballgame into a 5-0 lead after Texas reliever Chase Shugart had cut through the lineup with relative ease the first time through the order. Nick Horvath added a solo shot two innings later for good measure to help the reigning national champs survive another day in Omaha with a 6-1 win over the Longhorns in Bracket Two’s first elimination game.
“It was win or go home for us, backs against the wall,” India said. “We definitely could play better moving on. We left some guys on today. But we pulled it out at the end, and that’s all that matters is the win.”
Florida’s Kowar dominates Longhorns after shaky start…
Texas got off to a nice start offensively against Florida’s junior right-hander Jackson Kowar. Duke Ellis drew a five-pitch walk and Kody Clemens singled three pitches later to put runners on the corners with one out. That was the last time the Longhorns would get a runner to third base against 2018 MLB first-round pick until the seventh inning. Kowar struck out the next two hitters to strand the threat, then went on to retire 17 of the next 22 hitters he faced over the five-plus innings of work.
The future Kansas City Royal had the full arsenal on display as he struck out a career-high 13 batters over 6 and 2/3 innings with his team facing a win-or-go home scenario.
“The first three batters I didn’t make really any quality pitches to. I was lucky it was only first and third and one out on the liner out to left field,” Kowar said. “Getting through that inning and kind of being able to settle in, especially after we had just scored in the first, it would have been a real let down for us if I had just given up a two or three spot there in the first right after we had just scrapped a run.
“Getting through that first was big, and then I was able to kind of get the fastball command working, and everything else played off of that the rest of the way.”
Kowar only threw a first-pitch strike to 15 of the 27 hitters he faced, but he made up for that by generating 19 swinging strikes and only walking two of the hitters that saw a three-ball count against him. He also bucked conventional wisdom by making it look easier each he navigated through the Texas lineup. The first time through the order the Longhorns were 2-for-8 with a walk and three strikeouts. The second time through they went 1-for-8 with four strikeouts. And the third and final time through they went 2-for-8 with a walk and six strikeouts. Texas’ best chances to break through was early in that first inning, because it was an uphill battle the rest of the way.
“He was 95, 96, commanded his fastball,” Big 12 Player of the Year Kody Clemens said. “And then he had a really good change-up. Coming out of his hands it looked like a fastball to most of us, and he executed it really well.”
Second-year Texas head coach David Pierce also couldn’t help but be impressed with how the Gators’ right-hander attacked his offense on Tuesday afternoon.
“He was very locked in,” Pierce said. “The thing about Kowar is that when you have stuff like that, it’s one thing, but when you can mix stuff with command, that’s when you’re a first-rounder. That’s what he is. He dominated with the change-up. And what’s interesting is we did a pretty good job of laying off of it early. And he immediately went to the curveball. He’s got an arsenal. Then when you mix that in with the 94-to-96-mile-an-hour fastball, it puts you in a position where maybe you cheat a little bit and get to the fastball, but it’s not one of the easiest things to do.
“But we competed. We just didn’t come up with a hit when we had some guys in scoring position. I think that’s a credit to him, the way he dialed it up.”
UNC starter Austin Bergner had a strangely unforgettable performance…
It wasn’t North Carolina’s day at the CWS (Williams / WBR) $CLICK TO BUY$
His team lost by 10 runs. He gave up a grand slam — and the lead — in the second inning. And his final two contributions to the outing were a throwing error and an intentional walk that loaded the bases with nobody out as Mississippi State players raced to the bat rack in a seemingly endless eight-run eighth inning.
Everything in between was masterful. As good as anyone has pitched through the first four days of this tournament.
“I think the biggest key was getting ahead early and just trying to put guys away early,” Bergner said. “Get the lead-off guy out as many times as possible and from there good things happened. It’s pretty easy to say, but one of the things we worked on all year was get the first pitch strike and put guys away on four pitches or less.”
After one mistake turned into a grand slam and four unearned runs crossing home plate in the top of the second inning, the sophomore right-hander needed only 51 pitches to retire each of the next 16 batters he faced before the wheels fell off the wagon for good in that disastrous eighth frame. He induced 18 swings-and-misses, threw 71 of his 98 pitches for strikes, and started off with strike one to 22 of 28 hitters.
He finished his day with eight strikeouts in seven-plus innings of work, and for much of the game looked like the best player on the field. But at the end of the day seven runs cross the plate on his watch — four on one pitch that were charged to his defense and three more that went on his tally after he was removed from the game. A mostly dominant performance book-ended by two nightmare innings.
An early CWS exit didn’t spoil the journey for Texas…
In Austin, Texas going two-and-barbecue in Omaha, Nebraska is not usually cause for celebration and praise. But with David Pierce in his second year leading the Longhorns’ baseball program, a 42-23 overall record, a 5-1 run through the Regional and Super Regional rounds on their home field, and a pair of games in Omaha with a team that started only one senior, it was a season worthy of some appreciation.
“When you get a taste of this, it makes you hungry,” Pierce said. “What we’ll talk about here shortly is understand your own strengths, understand your own weaknesses and what do you have to do, first of all, to make the team next year. Secondly, what do you have to do to be a role player, an everyday player?
“This motivates you and this builds a culture of expectation from our program. That’s the beauty of it. Their accomplishments were great, but what they’ve done for Texas athletics and Texas baseball is tremendous.
“I mean, I’ve coached a lot of teams. And you never build chemistry day one. Chemistry is not built in the fall. It starts then. But you build chemistry by playing together, winning together, losing together, going through the adversity, the bus rides, the quirky things that happen with teams. All that stuff has built the chemistry of this team. And I don’t think we had one true controversy with a group that we had to address. Minor issues at times. But overall these guys are well behaved and they’ve really represented the University of Texas very well.”
What’s up next…
The weather has already done a number on the schedule for this series, and that doesn’t seem to be changing in the coming days. But the show must go on! Everything will get underway at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday with Texas Tech vs. Arkansas, which will be followed later that night at 6:00 p.m. by an elimination game — an opening game rematch — between North Carolina and Oregon State. See y’all at the ballpark!
