There is no great way to salve a blowout reduction to your main rival, specifically when there’s a title on the line. And Oklahoma’s 8-1 win above Texas in Sunday’s Huge 12 event championship video game at World Daily life Industry will sting the Longhorns for a time, however they will not have very long to dwell on it.Â
Inspite of the 3rd-seeded Sooners’ smackdown, and despite finishing fifth in the Massive 12, fifth-seeded Texas (42-19) will serve as a person of 16 NCAA tournament regional hosts when play begins subsequent week, the NCAA uncovered Sunday evening. The remainder of the 64-workforce subject will be unveiled Monday afternoon.Â
That aids, however the way Texas’ Major 12 event run ended will nonetheless depart behind a sour style. Â
The Sooners erupted for 8 operates in the 3rd inning and chased both equally starter Travis Sthele and reliever Aaron Nixon prior to Tristan Stevens arrived in to file all a few outs. That pivotal frame also featured the ejection of Texas coach David Pierce following a heated confrontation with the residence plate umpire immediately after Oklahoma went up 2- on a Sthele balk. Â
“I mean, you arrive into a event like this with the College of Texas to get championships, and our men had been set on trying to acquire this issue,” Texas assistant coach Sean Allen, who served as acting manager immediately after Pierce’s ejection, informed Longhorn Radio Network soon after the activity. “But there are a whole lot of meaningful games in this article, and which is just heading to aid us in postseason perform to acquire these ordeals from seriously fantastic baseball teams. We actually very good teams, Omaha-caliber groups, and it received us greater.”Â
It was a sore ending, but by beating common-year winner TCU and fellow regional host Oklahoma State (2 times) en route to the title activity, Texas locked up a hosting place. And that, much more than everything, was the Longhorns’ major aim in Arlington. Â
But there was at the very least a person other brilliant location for Texas amid Sunday’s beatdown: To start with baseman Ivan Melendez smashed his report-breaking 29th property run in the initial inning to snap a tie with Kyle Russell atop the school’s single-season leaderboard. Â
Melendez’ 407-foot solo blast snapped a streak of five homer-less games and pushed his RBI total to 86, tied for the 3rd-most in plan heritage with Danny Peoples.  Â
“You have your identify at the prime of a important document at the College of Texas for baseball, it really is just unquestionably extraordinary,” Allen reported. “And the wonderful thing about it, he is a superior child and human staying than he is a baseball participant. And that’s why it’s so magnificent, because the child just operates each working day, he’s a wonderful teammate and just an absolute pleasure to be all around. Really, truly exclusive period for him and I know he’s all set to make a run at this point.”Â
Now, Texas will try out to make superior on its preseason No. 1 position with another operate to the men’s University Globe Collection in Omaha. And following coming one gain shy of previous year’s CWS finals, the Longhorns are firmly nationwide title-or-bust heading into June. Â