Down 7-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, Texas coach Augie Garrido, always with a line worthy of "Rudy" or "Hoosiers," had one thing to say to his team.
"I told them here lies our opportunity to do something great," Garrido said.
Hunter Harris was listening and stepped up. Curtis Thigpen, Huston Street and everybody else too.
Harris, the Longhorns' designated hitter, led the comeback against Rice with two two-run triples down the right field line as Texas beat Rice 8-7.
"You can never increase the size of a team's heart," Garrido said. "This was done with spirit."
Jeff Niemann, college baseball's Pitcher of the Year last season, had a five-run cushion and three innings left, but somehow the Longhorns found their opportunities. Texas began the bottom of the seventh with three straight hits to right field by Michael Hollimon, Dooley Prince and Hunter Harris. Harris' was a first-pitch triple down the first base line that scored both Hollimon and Prince. He would later score on Seth Johnston fielder's choice to make the score 7-5.
The next inning, same deal. With Hollimon and Prince on first and second, Harris hit an 0-2 pitch down the line to almost the exact spot as his first triple.
Hunter Harris owns the right- field line.
"I'm not that fast for triples, so they're few and far between," Harris said. "I'll thank the line later, or the wind, whatever. We'll take it."
After going 17-0 last year, Niemann dropped to 0-2 for the season with both losses coming against Texas. In 3.1 innings Tuesday, he gave up five hits and five earned runs and was pulled after Harris' hit in the eighth inning.
Harris scored the winning run on a Curtis Thigpen single off Rice with another All-American Philip Humber in the next at-bat. It was a career day for Harris as he went 3-for-5 with two runs and four RBIs. A junior transfer from Tulsa, Okla., Tuesday was Harris' sixth start of the season, and he said he was "just trying to do my job."
"If you're going to be consistent, everybody and every part of the game makes some contribution," Garrido said. "Hunter was just like [outfielder] Ryan Russ on Sunday with two triples."
With Rice leading 3-2 in the seventh inning, J. Brent Cox entered the game with two outs and the bases loaded facing third baseman Adam Morris.
After a first-pitch ball, Morris crushed Cox's next pitch over the left field wall for his second grand slam of the season to make it 7-2.
Cox later left the game with a right shoulder injury.
With the one-run lead entering the ninth, Huston Street had what Garrido said was "a gleam in his eye." Street hadn't pitched in over two weeks due to a groin injury, but this was his time.
"I had my tennis shoes on, went into the locker room to put on my spikes," Street said. "I came back out and said to coach 'I'm good to go, I promise you I'm good to go.'"
Street struck out two of the three batters he faced, including Morris. It was the sixth comeback win of the season for Texas and a continuation of the winning instinct that Garrido has talked about.
"He preaches to us that baseball is a game of adversity and we have to overcome it to be successful," Thigpen said. "We take that to heart, and we believe in it. That's what it's about, when you get down in situations like that, you have to believe that you can come back. We know we will."
Texas just beat two of the best pitchers in the nation despite a five-run deficit. No need to talk about coming back from adversity anymore, Augie. Just show them the game tape.
Lecure Co-pitcher of the Week
Texas pitcher Sam LeCure was named Big 12 Co-pitcher of the Week after picking up two wins, one against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and another Sunday against San Diego. In his second win of the week, LeCure pitched seven scoreless innings and recorded a career-high seven strikeouts.
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