If you asked Augie Garrido what the Longhorns need to do to win the Dallas Regional, he’d offer insight about scoring more runs than the other team. When you coach collegiate baseball for more than 30 years, the game simplifies. Considering the vastness of games and outcomes Garrido has witnessed, there’s no way to encompass it all without stripping away all the nuances.
Score more runs than the other team.
Begging Garrido’s pardon, there are two more keys to the Longhorns leaving Dallas as Regional winners. Texas baseball has won the last four NCAA Regional tournaments they’ve appeared in, here’s what it will take for a fifth:
1. Score Early
In the Big 12 tournament, Texas scored first in all four games they played, eventually winning each. The Horns have never gone through the conference tournament without at least one loss, and scoring those early runs was a factor that helped them do so in 2015.
Texas is an impressive 22-6 when scoring first this season, and it goes deeper than scoring more runs than the other team. This team’s worst enemy is itself – when the roster tries to win, their talents fail them. Whether it’s overswinging at pitches outside the strike zone, or pitching for a strikeout instead of trusting the defense, Texas plays it’s worst baseball when the players allow their mind to guide their on-field-play.
That’s why scoring first correlates strongly with wins for this team – playing from ahead relieves them of the mental trap of trying to do too much. When the Longhorns score early, it allows their considerable on-field talents to play for all nine innings.
2. Rely on “team”, not individuals
Whether it’s been offseason surgeries, in-season injuries, or benchings for lack of performance, one of the most impressive things about the 2015 Texas baseball roster has been it’s ability to absorb blows that would devastate most teams.
The Horns just won the Big 12 tournament by getting complete game performances in three games. That’s an amazing stat, but becomes mind-boggling when considering they did so without three of their top four starting pitchers.
The offense showed it’s depth in Tulsa as well – 13 different players made at least one plate appearance and 11 of them contributed offensively. For comparison’s sake, only 10 players had a hit in a total of 15 postseason games last year.
The team’s depth has also proven itself throughout the year. As anticipated stars like CJ Hinojosa, Tres Barrera, and Zane Gurwitz have been benched, the roster responded with Joe Baker, Michael Cantu, and Taylor Stell performing very well.
More than merely having talented depth in the dugout, winning the Dallas Regional is about the roster playing together. As Collin Shaw and Parker French explained yesterday, the 2014 team’s postseason run was boosted by the fact that those players simply enjoyed playing the game together, and didn’t want to stop.
The 2015 Longhorns have better depth and as good of camaraderie as last season’s squard. Now it’s up to them to see if they can harness it and use it to their advantage.
