Texas Baseball: Magical Omaha rally comes to an end for the Horns

A nice run for No. 2 ranked Texas baseball and head coach David Pierce did come to an end in the College World Series in Omaha this weekend. Texas fell one run shy of making it to the final round of the College World Series, pushing the No. 7 ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs to the brink.

Three straight wins for the Longhorns in Omaha got them to the point where they were just one run away from besting Mississippi State to battle the No. 4 ranked Vanderbilt Commodores for a National Championship. This is the closest Texas got to the final round of the College World Series since 2014.

And this run in Omaha was very similar to the Longhorns run in 2014, where they fell one game shy of getting past Vandy to face the Virginia Cavaliers in the final round of the College World Series. Texas had also pushed that final couple of games with Vandy to the brink before the Commodores beat them in extra innings by just one run to move onto the final round.

However, Pierce certainly looks to have this program trending up right now. Texas lost their first game in Omaha this year. But they battled back to beat the No. 3 ranked Tennessee Volunteers, No. 6 ranked Virginia, and Mississippi State once, by a combined margin of 11 runs to nearly make it to the final round in Omaha.

Texas got a solid effort on the mound from redshirt junior right-hander Tristan Stevens, at least until the fifth inning. Although, it looked like the Texas bullpen was going to come to the rescue again in this game. Cole Quintanilla wound up somewhat unfairly getting his first loss of the season.

Brief heroics from Cole Quintanilla can’t save the season for David Pierce and Texas baseball

He steadied out the Longhorns, coming on in relief of Stevens in the sixth inning. But it was the one mistake from Quintanilla in the bottom of the ninth inning that led to the Bulldogs being able to head to the final round in Omaha with the 4-3 win.

That was the lone earned run in 3.1 innings on the mound for Quintanilla, who also struck out five Bulldogs batters in the process.

Texas got a big home run from Cam Williams early in this game, which looked to paint a different picture this time around against Mississippi State. But Texas still eventually wound up falling short to the Bulldogs by yet another one-run margin.

Following the Omaha exit for Texas this weekend, they finish up the 2021 season with a solid record of 50-17 (17-7 Big 12). This was the first College World Series appearance for Pierce and the Longhorns since the 2018 season. And in three seasons where Pierce even had the chance to get Texas in the postseason, he’s got two appearances in Omaha.

Texas heads into this offseason with a good amount of momentum, looking to bring back maybe the Big 12’s most potent roster next year. There will be a lot of excitement about what’s to come for this baseball program, hopefully with the ability to reach Omaha again in 2022.