Texas Baseball: Pete Hansen spins a gem, Horns advance in CWS

In a win-or-go-home affair between No. 2 ranked Texas baseball and the No. 6 ranked Virginia Cavaliers late in the night of June 24, head coach David Pierce was trying to keep his team alive in Omaha. Texas needed a win over Virginia to keep from heading back to Austin early.

Although there was a lot of anticipation surrounding this game for Pierce and the Longhorns, it didn’t start the way we imagined it would. Texas and Virginia weren’t actually able to get the first pitch of this game off until 9:45 p.m. CT. That was nearly four hours after the original start time of 6 p.m. CT.

A weather delay pushed the start of this game back in Omaha thanks to thunderstorms. But the skies finally cleared up enough by a quarter to 10 to get this game going.

Texas looked ready to go from first pitch of this game, a testament to their preparation and energy despite the delay. Redshirt freshman right-hander Pete Hansen got the start for the Longhorns, and he was very solid. Hansen was essentially spotless for Texas through his first four innings of work.

Pete Hansen and Zach Zubia spark Texas baseball in a huge win over UVA

There were some hiccups for Hansen in the fifth inning, though. Virginia finally started to see some life in their bats in the bottom of the fifth. They wound up getting two runs scored on Hansen that inning.

Hansen wouldn’t last much longer than that on the mound either for Texas. He finished up with 5.2 innings on the mound, with two earned runs on five hits, and six strikeouts. Not too shabby for the freshman in such a bright spotlight in an elimination game (also with weird circumstances thanks to the weather delay) in the College World Series.

The spark that Texas got with the bats on this night came from Ivan Melendez and Zach Zubia. Melendez came up with two hits in five at-bats, good for two runs, and one run batted in.

Even though Zubia only had one hit in this game, it surely came at the right time. Zubia knocked in three runs in the top of the ninth on a clutch double. That lone hit on the night from Zubia extended the lead for Texas to 6-2.

And that was seemingly the nail in the coffin. Texas beat the Hoos by the final score of 6-2.

It started to look like the Hoos were going to catch up with the Longhorns for good when Virginia had that rally to score two runs in the bottom of the fifth. But the likes of Cole Quintanilla and the Longhorns bats were able to seal the deal when it was all said and done.

Quintanilla wound up getting the win for the Longhorns in this game, coming in right after Hansen in relief near the end of the sixth inning. His record on the season now moves to 5-0, and Hansen will stick at 9-1 after this start.

Texas moves their record to 49-16 on the season after this four-run win over Virginia in the College World Series to stay alive. They are now one step closer to advancing on to the title game. Next up for the Longhorns is a chance at revenge against the No. 7 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs. First pitch in this rematch between Texas and Mississippi State is set for 6 p.m. CT on June 25.