On Saturday night, the Texas baseball team opened its super regional against Oregon with an 11-3 victory and moved within one win of the College World Series.
In the eight-run triumph at UFCU Disch-Falk Field, Texas was actually outhit by a 9-8 margin. All-American candidates Aiden Robbins and Carson Tinney combined to go 0-for-7 from the top-two spots in the Texas batting order.
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The Longhorns, though, got a big boost from sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez, who went 2-for-3 with five RBIs. Those five RBIs were a career-high total.
“My teammates in front of me getting on base for me to drive them in, that’s just team baseball. It’s what we do,” Rodriguez said. “It’s playoff baseball, so it’s win or go home so we’re doing anything we can to win and put up runs on the board.”
Batting fifth in the Texas lineup, Rodriguez got the scoring started for Texas with a two-run double in the first inning. He added an RBI single in the fifth frame and later brought teammates home in the sixth and eighth innings with sacrifice flies.
In four games in the NCAA Tournament, Rodriguez is 9-for-14 with 11 RBIs and three runs scored. In a regional win over Tarleton State on May 30, Rodriguez hit the fourth homer of his season.
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This postseason performance is what many expected out of Rodriguez as he prepared for his sophomore season. But after having offseason hand surgery, Rodriguez struggled at the plate as his hand had an adverse reaction to the procedure. In late March, the decision was made for Rodriguez to have a surgery staple removed from his hand. He missed eight games before returning to the Texas lineup on April 17.
During the second half of the season, Rodriguez also ditched his switch-hitting approach and decided to bat solely from the left side of the plate. Rodriguez said that the aftermath of his surgery also forced him to limit his work in the batting cages.
“I think it’s made me definitely more mature on how (I’m) going about things in the facility, how many swings I’m taking before the game,” Rodriguez said. “I’ve limited that down quite a bit because of the situation I’m in right now, and I’ve done things with my swing mechanically just to simplify everything, not make my head move since my hand’s not 100% right now. I think that’s helped me right now, especially in the playoffs.”
Added Texas coach Jim Schlossnagle: “I think for Adrian, this will be something that really helps his career long-term. He’s a special, special player that doesn’t have to take 1,000 swings to get ready to go, he can wake up and hit. … He likes baseball, so I don’t ever want to coach that out of him, and I don’t have to change that, but he’s learning that he can limit his work and still be super effective, and then (he’s) really learning to use the whole field to hit.”
Rodriguez was responsible for two of UT’s eight hits on Saturday. Texas also got homers from Casey Borba and Ethan Mendoza in the victory, but those would be the only hits for UT that drove in runs as the Longhorns took advantage on an uneven outing from an Oregon pitching staff that was ranked 11th nationally in ERA and seventh in WHIP.
Oregon (43-17) issued eight walks and hit three Texas batters during Saturday’s setback, and starting pitcher Cal Scolari was unable to get out of the fourth inning. The Longhorns plated runs on three sacrifice flies and a bases-loaded balk, and Rodriguez trotted home in the fifth inning when teammate Dariyan Pendergrass was hit by a pitch.
“(I’m) disappointed in the fact that that’s what we brought to the Austin Super Regional in the first game,” said Oregon coach Mark Wasikowski, whose team stranded 17 runners on base. “I think we’re a whole lot better than what we showed tonight, but what we showed tonight was what we all saw, and that wasn’t reflective of my opinion about how we got this far.”
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