OMAHA, Neb. - Among the notable fans showing up at Rosenblatt Stadium for the College World Series championship series were Olympic gold medalist and Texas softball All-American Cat Osterman, former Longhorn football coach Darrell Royal and Texas women's basketball coach Jody Conradt.
Conradt and Royal flew up before Saturday's game, while Osterman drove up with Texas volleyball players Michelle Moriarty and Alyson Jennings.
This marks the first trip to the College World Series for the 80-year-old Royal, who won three football national championships at Texas and remains on campus as a special adviser to University President Larry Faulkner. Royal watched the action from a suite.
Attendance records fall
For the final game of a week filled with exciting finishes and close scores, Sunday's crowd of 19,836 helped break the all-time total attendance record at the College World Series.
Through all 15 games at Rosenblatt Stadium, a total 263,475 fans passed through the gates, breaking the previous record of 260,091 set in 2003.
Individual sessions this week broke the majority of the attendance records in Omaha, and the week's average crowd of 23,952 was also a record.
Longhorn notables
Texas closer J. Brent Cox broke former closer Huston Street's school record with 106 appearances and tied the Texas single-season saves record of 19 on Sunday. Cox also tied the single CWS record with five appearance this week.
Texas scored first in all five games in this year's series. The Longhorns only trailed once the entire series. Texas trailed Baylor 3-2 in the seventh inning of Game 12 but scored twice in the eighth to win 4-3.
Texas finished 5-0 in the CWS and is the first team to win the national title without losing a game in Omaha since the Longhorns did it in 2002. In the past 16 years, 11 teams have gone undefeated.
The Longhorns laid down 10 sacrifice bunts this week. Centerfielder Drew Stubbs had a record five sacrifices.
Low scoring CWS
All 15 games in the 2005 CWS were decided by five or fewer runs for the first time in history.
The last time no team scored 10 runs in a game in the CWS was 1971. There were 124 runs in 15 games this year, an average of 8.27 per game. That is the lowest total since 1974, the year the designated hitter and aluminum bats were introduced. The 1973 series averaged seven runs per game in 14 games.
The 3.44 cumulative earned run average and the .251 batting average were the lowest marks in 30 years at the CWS. Hitters managed only 251 hits in 1,000 at-bats.
Additionally, there were no triples in the CWS for the first time ever.
Easy does it to LaPorta
Texas pitched carefully, and with great success, against Florida All-American Matt LaPorta, who led the nation with 27 home runs this season.
In Game 1, Texas pitchers showed their strategy against the big right-handed slugger, pitching LaPorta outside almost exclusively. LaPorta went 2-for-4 in the game with a bloop double and a two-RBI single in the eighth.
Sunday Texas continued to pitch away from LaPorta, who tried to pull an outside pitch and flew out to the warning track in left field with a runner on third and a chance to come back. LaPorta also walked twice and struck out.
The Longhorns didn't have the same success with left fielder Brian Leclerc, who hit his second and third home runs of the CWS against the Longhorns during the title series.
Tower lit tonight
The team will hold a tower-lighting ceremony today at Disch-Fal field at 4 p.m. which is open to the public.
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