With Taylor Jungmann starting game one of the Austin Super Regional most Longhorn fans through the team had a better than average chance of beating Arizona State. On a nationally televised game by ESPN, Jungmann pitched pretty darn good – giving up one earned run in 7 1/3 innings pitched. The demise of the Longhorns were the errors that resulted in 2 unearned runs Arizona State added in the third inning. A hard hit grounder that bounced off of Tant Shepard’s glove at first base and a mound-grounder that Jungmann easily grabbed and threw to second base (only to find nobody there to catch it) resulted in Arizona State taking a 2-0 lead. Texas cut the lead in half by scoring one run in the bottom of the third but Arizona State added to its lead by scoring an insurance run in the 8th. The Sun Devils won by a score of 3-1 and force the Longhorns to play from behind in the series, much like the regional series forced them to do.
If fans in the stand and elsewhere heard the chants of “Rudy, Rudy, Rudy” from Sun Devil fans in the stands, it wasn’t because they were watching the Golden Domer movie Rudy. Instead they were cheering for ASU’s freshman outfielder Johnny Ruettiger (nephew of Dan “Rudy” Ruettiger, walk-on football player at Notre Dame and basis for the movie Rudy). While Arizona State did win game one, Tempe Arizona is a long way from Touchdown Jesus and Southbend, Indiana. The Longhorns present Cole Green on the mound tonight in hopes of tying the Super Regional Series at one a piece.
