 "Photo: Paul Chouy/The Daily Texan")
OMAHA, Neb. — Connor Rowe stepped to the plate as 23,000 fans stood cheering, and heard complete silence. One big swing later, he was in the middle of the screaming crowd, soaking in every word as his teammates mobbed him at home plate. The No. 9 hitter with a .274 batting average had just launched Texas into the title series.
“I went into a different zone,” Rowe said a few minutes after his walk-off home run. “I couldn’t hear anything. It went silent in my head.”
The ping of his bat colliding with the ball, sending it two rows beyond the reaching glove of Arizona State’s Kole Calhoun, was what Rowe needed to bring him back to reality, sort of.
“I have no idea what is going on right now,” he said during a postgame press conference. “I’m still kind of in awe of what just happened.”
The Sun Devils had come within two outs of a winner-take-all rematch with Texas on Saturday. But Cameron Rupp and Rowe had other ideas, launching gravity-defying bombs that broke the Sun Devils’ hearts. While Rowe’s had more drama, Rupp’s had the distance. The sophomore catcher hit his third home run in two games against ASU to dead-center field, over the 25-foot wall and the 408 foot sign, to tie the game at 3-3 with one out in the ninth.
“I knew it was gone,” Rupp said. “That was…golly, that was unbelievable.”
After ASU’s Jason Kipnis battled his way to second base following an 11-pitch at bat with Texas closer Austin Wood, freshman pinch hitter Zach Wilson sliced a two-out triple the other way, putting ASU three outs from a win.
But with freshman closer Mitchell Lambson already throwing two innings Friday night and 3 1/3 against Texas on Tuesday, Rupp and Rowe knew what to look for.
“I faced him three times and it’s changeup, changeup, changeup,” Rowe said. “I was sitting on a change-up and that’s what I got. It worked out.”
While Rowe wasn’t quite sure if his blast had the distance until after rounding first base, his teammates weren’t so cautious. Even as the ball soared through the air and Calhoun shuffled his feet and leapt at the warning track, the dugout poured out, requiring home plate umpire Steve Manders to keep the players off the plate as Rowe finished his trot.
The storybook ending was just the latest in a series of improbable wins that have given the Longhorns the feel of a team of destiny.
While being one of the most dramatic games in recent College World Series history—and the first walk-off homer since another Longhorn, Chance Wheeless, beat Baylor with a bomb in 2005, this win is par for the course in a series of heart-stopping Texas wins. This is the second walk-off the Longhorns have had this week, following their less admirable walk-off walk against Southern Miss, and is their third in the NCAA tournament after a walk-off grand slam against Army.
“Wow, what a game,” Texas head coach Augie Garrido said. “The two home runs are about as dramatic as you can get…they changed the game.”
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