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Game 9 (Elimination Game): Texas 1, UC Irvine 0
CJ Hinojosa’s home run was the difference in the game to give the Longhorns another day at the CWS (Brad Williams/WBR)
Through eight games at the 2014 College World Series, TD Ameritrade Park Omaha has taken a relentless beating in the media and coaching circles for its perceived, and often exaggerated, effect on the power numbers during the series. With that in mind when I woke up on Wednesday morning I was unsure of whether I wanted to see Texas and UC Irvine play a five-hour marathon where the biggest and baddest on each club took turns launching no-doubters into the bleachers, or if I wanted to see another pitcher’s duel, hoping that the criticism would finally turn into praise of the pitchers and defenders who are doing their part to keep the score down.
As it turned out, the elimination game between the Longhorns and Anteaters delivered on a combination of everything. The result was the best game of the entire series so far– no disrespect to last night’s 15-inning epic between Virginia and TCU. This game had great pitching, outstanding defensive plays to prevent guys from getting into scoring position, and it sailed along at a pace that made it easy to follow even for the fans who only came because they wanted to be arrested for running onto the field — yes, that happened as well, unfortunately.
Starting pitchers Chad Hollingsworth of Texas and Evan Manarino of UC Irvine each scattered three hits and didn’t walk a single hitter through the first six innings, which took well under two hours to get through.
Then the unthinkable happened. Something most people said couldn’t be done. Something that might have earned Texas shortstop C.J. Hinojosa the key to the city if the “TD Ameritrade Park plays too big” crowd has their way. The 5-foot 11-inch sophomore unloaded on a 2-0 offering from Manarino and sent it over the left field wall, nearly clearing the UC Irvine bullpen in the process to give the Longhorns a 1-0 lead with nobody out in the top of the seventh.
“Four players fainted,” said Texas head coach Augie Garrido jokingly, when asked about the dugout’s reaction to Hinojosa’s blast. “I had a mild heart attack. I put in a long distance call in to get Cinco de Mayo recognized as a national day in honor of him.”
It was just the 2nd home run of the season for Hinojosa, and it couldn’t have come at a better time.
“I was just trying to see a good pitch,” Hinojosa said. “I was battling all night. I was seeing it good. I tried to put a good swing on it, and it flew out. I think the wind might have changed, so that was kind of lucky on our side.”
It would prove to be all the run support Hollingsworth would need to earn the Longhorns a date with Vanderbilt in the Bracket One championship game on Friday. He turned away a UC Irvine threat in the bottom of the eighth before giving way to sophomore left hander Travis Duke with one on and one out in the ninth. Duke proceeded to strike out Anteaters’ designated hitter Jonathan Munoz and induce an easy fly out to right off the bat of Grant Palmer to end it.
“I think the storyline certainly has to center around Hollingsworth,” Garrido said. “He not only did the same kind of a job in the Super Regional, but once again when given the ball, he threw up all zeroes. He does that by following what Coach [Skip] Johnson wants all his pitchers to do. Travis did the same thing — and that is just keep it simple. Hit the mitt.”
With pitching performances like that the difference then came down to Hinojosa’s home run. The blast ended a streak of 115 consecutive innings without a home run at the College World Series. A streak that has led to Omaha’s three-year-old ballpark taking an enormous amount of criticism from all corners of the college baseball world, except for maybe the two head coaches involved in tonight’s game. They’ve won national championships in all kinds of ways and in different eras of the game. To them, this place is special no matter what the numbers say.
“I’m genuinely really, really thrilled that our players got to experience this,” said UC Irvine head coach Mike Gillespie. “People say it over and over and over again, but I don’t think it can be said enough, so I’ll be one more person that echoes what’s always said about Omaha, about the people of Omaha and how hospitable they are. What a great job the hosts do. In our case, it was the Exchange Club, but it’s nice people every time you turn around.”
There are a lot of complaints about the ballpark, but not by me. It’s gorgeous. It’s beautiful. It’s a Taj Mahal. I think that the College World Series people have just continued to build and build and build in terms of the beauty of this event. It’s a spectacular event. Our players, I trust, will never forget it.”