In just his first year at Texas, freshman Michael Hollimon has already shown why he was one of the most talented high school prospects in the country a year ago.
During the second game of Saturday's doubleheader against Kansas, the shortstop continued to play beyond his years, singling in Eric Sultemeier in the bottom of the 11th to give Texas the 5-4 victory.
But Hollimon refused to take all of the credit for Texas' comeback win, because in his eyes, the game should have ended long before the late-inning heroics.
With Curtis Thigpen standing on second base in the bottom of the ninth, Hollimon attempted to lay down a sacrifice bunt that would have put the winning run 90 feet away from home, with only one out in the inning.
"We shouldn't even have been in that situation," Hollimon said. "If I get that bunt down earlier, [Tim] Moss is the hero. It's not even on me."
Instead, Hollimon's bunt rolled straight to Kansas pitcher Tom Gorzelanny, and Thigpen was thrown out trying to advance to third. Moss' single to right field three pitches later would have been the game winner, had Hollimon's bunt gone a couple of feet to the left or right of the mound.
"We work on [bunting] a lot in practice, so it was just a complete miscommunication on my part," Hollimon said.
Hollimon was given a chance for redemption in the 11th, after Sultemeier was hit by a pitch and moved around to third on a sacrifice bunt and wild pitch.
With one out, Hollimon drilled a Gorzelanny curve ball up the middle to score Sultemeier and help No. 16 Texas take two of three from Kansas.
"This team has character, but they need experience," Texas head coach Augie Garrido said. "The biggest value of [playing in close games] is to never give up and take it to another level for a longer period of time."
Texas infielder Omar Quintanilla, who extended his season-high hitting streak to 15 games on Saturday, began an eighth-inning rally that put Texas (28-9, 7-5 Big 12) in position to take the rubber game of its series against the Jayhawks.
With runners on second and third, Jeff Ontiveros hammered a two-out double over center fielder Lance Hayes' head, driving in two runs to tie the score, 4-4.
Ontiveros admitted that throughout his career at Texas, breaking balls in the dirt have been his Achilles' heel at the plate. So when Gorzelanny tried to sneak an 0-2 fastball by the big first baseman, Ontiveros was shocked.
"If he was smart, he would have thrown me something off-speed," Ontiveros said. "Instead, he gave me a pitch I wanted, and I took advantage of it. "
Ontiveros was unable to break Texas' career home run record this past weekend, but took two legitimate shots at former Longhorn Brooks Kieschnick's mark.
In Saturday's first game, Kansas outfielder Adam Rachlin leaped against the left field wall to catch Ontiveros' first bid for the record.
His second attempt was anything but catchable, as Ontiveros laced the Gorzelanny offering deep into the left field parking lot. Unfortunately for the the Texas first baseman, the ball was foul.
"I knew he was going to come right down the pipe with it, and he just got lucky," said Ontiveros, who has a team-high eight home runs this season. "I let him have one."
Lost in it all were the performances of the Texas pitching staff, which boasts a conference-best 2.51 ERA.
Brad Halsey (4-1) suffered his first loss of the season when Kansas (13-15, 2-10 Big 12) claimed a 5-3 win on Friday night, but sophomore Justin Simmons helped Texas bounce back with an 8-3 win in Game 1 of the doubleheader.
Simmons (9-0) had gone 23 2/3 innings without allowing a run before giving up a home run to Casey Spanish in the sixth inning Saturday. With the victory, he became the first college pitcher in the nation to reach nine wins this year.
Jesen Merle, who saw 2 1/3 innings of work in relief of Simmons, was called upon again in the doubleheader's nightcap.
Replacing Texas starter Alan Bomer, who surrendered four runs in less than three innings, Merle came on to retire 19 of the 20 batters he faced, but was unable to notch his third win of the season. Freshman Huston Street (2-1) pitched the 10th and 11th to earn the victory.
Be the first to comment on this article!