 "Photo: Paul Chouy/The Daily Texan")
This Texas team isn’t great. It might not even be that good. With only a couple of mid-round picks in last week’s MLB draft, it’s light on experienced major league-class talent. The offense, capable of comebacks like Tuesday’s 10-run miracle, was equally capable of scoring just twice against TCU’s third-best starter with a trip to Omaha on the line.
The pitching, of course, is a different story. In Chance Ruffin and Cole Green, Texas has two of the best starters in the country, while freshmen Taylor Jungmann and Austin Dicharry could be even better. But through two games in the College World Series, the pitching has hardly been a strength, surrendering six runs in each game.
The Longhorns are so underwhelming on paper that, even as a healthy No.1 seed, they were underdogs against Arizona State.
Yet, as they have done all year, they fought back. After taking the Sun Devils’ best punch and looking dazed through three innings, the Longhorns finally played loose, leveling the game in one big inning and riding that momentum to a 10-6 win.
In a game defined by averages and percentages, this Texas team has something that can’t be expressed by numbers or confined to a box score.
To some, that something is destiny. After the latest in a series of unbelievable wins, the whispers that this is meant to be are growing louder.
Catcher Cameron Rupp, who hit two home runs against Arizona State, thinks it’s just a product of team chemistry. Texas players have made a habit of picking each other up, whether it’s Jungmann and Dicharry pitching seven innings in relief of Ruffin, or Rupp redeeming himself with two bombs after his errors behind the plate put Texas in a 6-0 hole.
Head coach Augie Garrido, who often looks to the spiritual side of baseball for explaining the unexplainable, cites the character of his players and their will to win as the reason they persevere when the odds are against them. Garrido even employed a sports psychologist all season to help his team overcome the mental challenges the game throws at it.
“It’s instinct,” Garrido said. “You can’t try to be there. You’re there or you’re not. It’s a hard place to find and it’s a hard place to stay.”
Whatever that extra something is, right now, the Longhorns have it. Pushed into a corner, they have responded. Punched in the mouth, they have swung back. Whether it’s been through pitching, hitting or simply not swinging, this team has responded — dare I say it — like champions.
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