Check out all of WBR’s 2014 College World Series coverage.
Game 11 (Bracket One Championship Game): Texas 4, Vanderbilt 0
A nightmarish start for Vanderbilt right hander Tyler Ferguson keyed a big first inning for a Texas team facing elimination. Ferguson’s first pitch of the game drilled lead off hitter Brooks Marlow. He then walked Ben Johnson on four pitches in the next at-bat. After finally throwing his first strike of the game, his next pitch hit 3-hole hitter Mark Payton to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the first.
After Ferguson calmed down long enough to strikeout Tres Barrera, the following hitter, C.J. Hinojosa, sent his inning back off the rails. Hinojosa hit would looked was going to be an inning-ending double play, but the ball struck second base umpire Mark Uyl before any Commodores’ fielder touched it, which meant Hinojosa was awarded first base and everyone runner that was forced to advance did so, making it 1-0, Longhorns.
“I guess the first at-bat, the first pitch, he squares me up and kind of got [Ferguson] rattled a little bit,” said Texas second baseman Brooks Marlow. “When you see a pitcher getting wild like that you can’t start chasing. You’ve got to let him come to you and compete against the baseball, not the pitcher. I think we did a good job of that early in the game.”
Ferguson got Collin Shaw swinging in the next at-bat, but walked then proceeded to issue a five-pitch walk to Madison Carter to force in a second run. Ferguson was removed after starting off the next hitter, Kacy Clemens, off with two more out of the zone. He was replaced by Brian Miller, who recovered to strike out Clemens and end the inning.
The poor play shifted from the pitching to the defense in the bottom of the second inning. Texas’ Zane Gurwitz led off with a line drive to left, Vandy’s Bryan Reynolds stumbled and fell on his first step allowing the ball to get to the wall and Gurwitz to slide in safely at third. The next hitter, Brooks Marlow, followed that up with an RBI triple to right field. His ball got to the wall after Rhett Wiseman came up short on his attempt to make a diving catch. Two hitters later, Mark Payton laid down a squeeze bunt that brought Marlow home. Payton was ruled safe at first after initially being called out on the tag, but Miller dropped the ball after applying the tag and the original call was overturned.
Vanderbilt escaped the inning without any further damage, but after two innings the Longhorns still held a 4-0 lead and were into the Commodores’ bullpen.
“I would say they were dangerous,” Vanderbilt head coach Tim Corbin said of the Texas offense. “You know, we helped them a little bit. I don’t say that in a negative way. I mean, we put some guys on base for them, and you know, that’s just tough. You don’t want to be playing uphill early in the game like we did. But they scrapped enough. They pushed the ball around with guys in scoring position. They’re going to make you pay if they soften the defense. They have some ways to cross the plate when guys are at third base.”
The early run support was more than enough for Texas starter Nathan Thornhill to work with. The Longhorns’ senior ace stifled the Vanderbilt offense over the course of his eight shutout innings on the mound. He struck out five, walked just one, and scattered six hits to help send Texas to a Saturday title game against the Commodores.
“Obviously the game was dominated by Nathan on the defensive side of it with good support from his teammates,” said Texas head coach Augie Garrido. “We showed good patience early in the game. We took our walks that we needed to take. We’d have liked to have had more out of that rally, but glad to have the two. And then to get the two in the second inning really helped a lot, as well. From there on it was pitching and defense, and we executed.”
Thornhill was the tough-luck loser in Game 1 against UC Irvine, but is now sporting a 0.64 ERA after two starts at the College World Series.
“I thought it was a dominant performance,” Garrido said of Thornhill. “…this is who he is. I mean, this is why he came back, and this is who he is. He doesn’t lead by telling other people what to do. He leads by doing it himself. He leads by example.”
Game 12 (Suspended by rain): Virginia 0, Ole Miss 0, Top of 2nd
Dark clouds moved in and several inches of rain poured down on TDAmeritrade Park suspending play (Spomer/WBR)
Play will resume at 2:00 pm (CT) on Saturday. If Ole Miss wins to force another game, they will play it on Sunday (time: TBA).
Virginia had runners on first and second with nobody out when the game was halted because of lightning in the area. Fans can use the Game 12 ticket to get in to Saturday afternoon’s game when it resumes.
In the meantime, see another spectacular photo by WBR photographer Mike Spomer.
Another shot of the weather moving into the Omaha metro (Spomer/WBR)