There simply is no better coach of the mental aspect of college baseball. Make no mistake, that is a very solid Houston Cougar ball club that is packing their bat bags and heading home.
But head home they will after a 4-0 defeat at the hands of Garrido’s Texas Longhorns.
After two wins in as many days, the Longhorns punched their ticket to Omaha and the College World Series. After a thrilling 4-1 win over their old, in-state rival Aggies, the Horns secured a berth in the Super Regionals. To top that achievement, Texas played near-perfect baseball for two consecutive days, beating Houston 4-2 and 4-0.
In three of four games in the Houston Regional, the Longhorns played very good baseball. The Texas team that played against Houston in the Super Regionals would have beaten that Texas team…soundly.
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Which brings it back to zen master Garrido, “They [the players] are running the team. They are driving the bus, they are inspiring and motivating each other, and they are giving each other confidence by doing what’s right and competing to the best of their abilities. They are doing it.“
And to better understand what it is that the players are doing, take a look at some stats from their first game against the Cougars:
• 0 errors and 0 passed balls
• 1 stolen base
• 2 sacrifices
• 3 walks (against a Houston staff that was allowing less than two walks per game)
Again showing their focus, the Longhorns scored four runs in the fourth inning on Saturday. In that half inning, Texas had: a walk, a bunt single, a stolen base and a sacrifice fly.
That’s two straight days of championship baseball. And for the 35th time in program history, the team is making reservations in Omaha to prove it.
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