A disastrous first inning set the tone for Saturday’s 7-1 loss to Georgia in the College World Series, sending Texas to the loser’s bracket in Omaha with an elimination game against Alabama coming up on Monday (1 p.m., ESPN).
Dylan Volantis walked third baseman Tre Phelps, setting the table for left field Ryan Lujo’s two-run home run down the left-field line. From there, a throwing error by Carson Tinney on a dropped third strike and one of a career-high four batters Volantis hit loaded the bases for shortstop Kolby Branch.
Volantis struck out Branch, but Tinney’s second throwing error of the inning on a dropped third strike allowed two runs to score. The Bulldogs’ four-run first put the Longhorns in a hole from which they couldn’t emerge, even with Volantis rebounding with seven strikeouts and four hits allowed in 6.1 innings.
Nevertheless, the self-inflicted wounds mounted for Texas (45-14), whose bats suffered 15 strikeouts at the hands of Georgia (53-12) right-handed pitcher Joey Volchko. The Bulldogs got a complete game from Volchko, who walked just one batter and allowed only four singles, including Ethan Mendoza’s opposite RBI base hit in the top of the fifth, which scored Adrian Rodriguez (2-for-3) and accounted for the only run of the game for the Longhorns.
The loss marked the sixth consecutive CWS-opening loss for Texas, which hasn’t won an opener in Omaha since 2009. That was the last time the Longhorns reached the national championship series.
At the same time, the 2014 and 2021 trips to the College World Series saw Texas battle through the loser’s bracket to reach a winner-take-all national semifinal before falling to a pair of eventual national champions, Vanderbilt (2014) and Mississippi State (2021), respectively. If the Longhorns are going to make a run at the championship series, however, the miscues from Saturday's loss must be eliminated.
When the dust settled, Texas committed three errors, threw two wild pitches and hit four batters. Only two of the seven runs Volantis allowed were earned.
Seven of the 15 strikeouts against Volchko were recorded by the first three hitters in the lineup. Tinney’s one-out walk in the ninth inning was the only time he reached base (0-for-3 with two strikeouts); Aiden Robbins and Anthony Pack Jr. both went 0-for-4, with Robbins striking out twice and Pack fanning three times against Volchko.
The Longhorns took two of three from the Crimson Tide in April at UFCU Disch-Falk Field. Alabama (42-20) suffered a 9-0 loss to Oklahoma in Saturday’s first game at Charles Schwab Field.
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