Lack of Replay costs Texas Baseball Wackiest Game of Season

We’ll never really know who should have won the wackiest game of the season for Texas Baseball.

The actual result was TCU winning 11-10 in 11 innings Friday night in Fort Worth. This dropped Texas Baseball to 9-9 in the Big 12 conference. But, if there ever was a time to file a protest or call for instant replay in college baseball, it would have been Friday’s game.

We’ll get to wacky this game was, including Texas mounting a big comeback to get to extras, but let’s start with the 11th inning.

With two outs, David Hamilton was hit on the foot by a pitch as he tried to get out of the way. Hamilton started to take his base, but Big 12 home plate umpire Chris Coskey ruled that the pitch did not hit his foot.

Replays on ESPNU showed the ball clearly hit Hamilton’s foot, even changing direction off his foot. Hamilton protested, but without replay in college baseball, ump Coskey did not change his call. Hamilton then struck out on the next pitch.

Why was that play so important? It would have put Hamilton on base for leadoff hitter Austin Todd, who was 5-6 in the game. Todd started the game with five straight hits and was one hit away from tying a Texas Baseball record for hits in a game. Who knows what would have happened with red-hot Todd at the plate and Hamilton’s speed on the base paths.

Moving to the bottom of the 11th, closer Beau Ridgeway walked the first Horned Frogs hitter of the inning. Then, against second hitter Ryan Merrill, Ridgeway placed strike three right in the zone, but home plate ump Coskey froze and missed the call.

This led to a walk to put two men on for TCU, instead of one on and one out. The Horned Frogs followed with a single to load the bases with no one out. Then, TCU cashed in a sac fly to win the game 11-10.

There was a clear lack of concentration from the home plate ump in the top and bottom of the last inning, hurting Texas’ chances of winning this game. Look, it’s understandable – but not excusable – nearly five hours into a wacky game. So, the NCAA has to help out with replay, at the very least in extra innings when one play can decide the outcome.

In this case on Friday night, we’ll never know who should have won the game. But now Texas has to regroup and get at least one game against a Top 10 team like TCU on Saturday and Sunday. [ Full Box Score ]

Texas Baseball Spent So Much Energy Taking Lead

What makes Friday’s loss even more frustrating is Texas showed tremendous fight to battle back from two big deficits on the road. And, the Horns actually took the lead 10-9 in extra innings.

But, Beau Ridgeway gave up a solo home run to Evan Skoug in the bottom of the 10th that tied the game 10-10. Otherwise, we never would have arrived at the umpiring situation that hurt Texas in the 11th.

Backing up to what happened during the first nine innings, well, that was all just plain wacky.

Morgan Cooper, is That You?

You wouldn’t know it by looking at the linescore, but Texas ace Morgan Cooper started this game against TCU. Cooper, who is one of the nation’s ERA leaders and was named Big 12 pitcher of the week last week, had his worst game of the season.

Cooper gave up 7 runs and only lasted three innings. The most runs he had allowed all season was three against Oklahoma one month ago. And, Texas won that game.

When Cooper exited, Texas was down 7-2 in a road game against the former No. 1 team in the country. It looked like Texas had no shot.

That was the feeling because Texas’ offense has been inconsistent this season, the Horns have struggled on the road, and they have rarely battled back from big deficits this season.

But, Texas chipped away to make it 7-4. Then, TCU quickly answered with two solo home runs to restore the five-run advantage. Surely, the game was over this time.

But, Texas chipped away again. A huge rally in the seventh led by Austin Todd got the Longhorns within 9-8.

Then, after not doing any damage in the eighth inning, Texas had one final shot in the ninth. And, Tyler Rand delivered a clutch sacrifice fly to score Zane Gurwitz, who also had a monster night at the plate. It was 9-9 after nine innings.

Then, the Longhorns rallied again in the top of the 10th. Who delivered the clutch hit? Senior Zane Gurwitz.

With the bases loaded and two outs, Gurwitz singled in Tate Shaw, but Todd Jones was thrown out at the plate. (The ump got that call right, although the play would not have been legal at the major league level with catcher Evan Skoug blocking the plate.)

So, with Texas up 10-9, Beau Ridgeway entered to close the game and get perhaps the biggest win of the season.

Instead, Evan Skoug led off the bottom of the 10th with a solo home run one play after preventing Texas from taking a two-run lead. It was a major two-run swing in a matter of two plays.

That led to what happened in the 11th inning when the game was decided by the series of unfortunate events.

Texas Hitting Box Score to Be Remembered

What Texas did at the plate on Friday night was remarkable. They battled back to get Morgan Cooper off the hook for a loss and put together some amazing stats. Unfortunately, it was all for naught. But, these stats should be remembered:

• 10 runs on 17 hits
• Only 2 of the 17 hits were extra base hits
• 0 Errors in the game

Unfortunately, Texas struggled with Runners in Scoring Position early in the game. The Horns finally came through in the late innings to get within one run, then to tie the game, and eventually take the lead. But, a few more hits with RISP earlier in the game would have helped matters.

As for the individual stats of Austin Todd and Zane Gurwitz, enjoy:

• Austin Todd: 5-6 with 3 Runs, 3 RBI, and his first Home Run of the season
• Zane Gurwitz: 5-6 with 2 runs, also 3 RBI, and the go-ahead RBI in the 10th

Todd had a chance to tie the Texas record for hits in one game in the 10th, but he popped out a bunt. Todd was then due up next after David Hamilton was not awarded first base when he was hit by a pitch in the 11th.

We’ll never know if Todd could have tied the record for hits in a game. Or, if Texas should have won this game. But, Texas needs to turn this frustrating loss into motivation to win on Saturday and Sunday.

Next: What is Texas' NCAA Tournament Standing?

The challenge is regrouping for a 12:00 p.m. start time on Saturday after going close to midnight on Friday. Then, Game 3 is also Sunday afternoon in Fort Worth.