FINAL: Oregon State 5 – Texas 4
The Texas Longhorns lost a heartbreaker to Oregon State in Game 1 of the Dallas Regional. The Beavers won the game 5-4 on an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth inning.
The game was filled with dramatic plays on offense and spectacular plays on defense. At the plate, Brooks Marlow’s 8th inning homerun that tied the game at 4-4 was one of the most memorable moments of the day.
Texas struck first in the top of the fourth inning when Tres Barrera hit an RBI single, scoring Joe Baker, and giving the Horns a 1-0 lead. Four batters later Kacy Clemens struck out with the bases loaded, ending the Texas scoring threat.
OSU seized momentum at that point, scoring four runs over the next three frames. The Beavers countered Texas’ brief lead by scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, using a hit batter, a wild pitch and three consecutive singles to take a 2-1 lead.
Trailing 4-1, Texas scratched a run across in the top of the seventh frame on a sacrifice fly by Ben Johnson. Marlow’s blast knotted the game an inning later. Zane Gurwitz robbed OSU of a homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning, keeping Texas within striking distance.
Starting pitchers Andrew Moore (Oregon State) and Parker French (Texas) kept the game scoreless for the first three innings. Both pitchers allowed four runs on the day, and neither factored in the decision.
After recording the last out in the top of the eighth frame, Sheldon Church (1-0) got the win for Oregon State courtesy of their game-winning hit later that inning. Kirby Bellow walked the batter that scored the game-winning run, and although Jake McKenzie gave up the RBI double, the runner belonged to Bellow. Bellow suffered the loss, dropping to 3-2 on the year.
The Longhorns fall in the loser’s bracket and are scheduled to play an elimination game on Saturday morning at 11:00am. Texas will face the loser of the game between Dallas Baptist and Virginia Commonwealth.
POST-GAME
Augie Garrido
, 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.â€</p>
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<p> <strong>On why they didn’t pitch Connor Mayes longer: </strong>“The left handed hitters and we felt Travis Duke 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. Kirby Bellow, excuse me.â€</p>
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<p> <strong>On having Kacy Clemens in the lineup instead of Michael Cantu: </strong>“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.â€</p>
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<p> <strong>On if he’s seen any catches better than the one Zane Gurwitz made:</strong> “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. “</p>
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<p> On his conversation with the umpire during the bottom of the 8th inning: “I couldn’t figure out, the guy 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 knowâ€. Somebody’s got to know.â€</p>
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<p> <strong>On Saturday’s starting pitcher decision: </strong>“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.â€</p>
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<p> <strong>On whether the strike zone bothered players:</strong> “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. “</p>
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Parker French
Brooks Marlow
 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. Ball’s wet, but Shaw fought it out. It’s pretty wet out there.â€</p>
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<p> <strong>On the next game and getting one last shot at Omaha:</strong> “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.â€</p>
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