In their first two games of the Regional, the Texas Longhorns racked up a shocking 35 runs to defeat the Holy Cross Crusaders and Tarleton State Texans.
Then, the white-hot bats of the Horns slowed down as Texas faced the UCSB Gauchos in a game to punch their ticket to the Super Regional.
In a surprising turn of events, the Gauchos got on the board first, tacking on a run in the bottom of the first inning. Then, despite Texas scoring two runs in the top of the sixth, UCSB responded immediately, scoring two runs to maintain its one-run lead over the Horns by the bottom of the inning.
The back and forth persisted for the final three innings, but the Longhorns were able to maintain a consistent offensive drive to secure a 6-4 win over the Gauchos to advance to the next round.
Texas Longhorns set to host a Super Regional
As one of the top national seeds, the Horns not only got the opportunity to host the Regional Round of the NCAA Tournament, but they will now get the chance to host the Super Regional Round as well.
With the next opponent still in action, Texas won't learn who it will face in the Super until the game between former-Pac-12 rivals Oregon and Oregon State comes to an end.
The Super Regional is structured differently from the Regional. Instead of round-robin play with a two-game elimination, the Super Regional is structured as a three-game series, where the first team to two victories advances to the College World Series.
The third game would only be necessary if the two teams split the first two matchups, so the Horns could very easily be two games away from punching their ticket back to Omaha for the CWS.
Also read: Jim Schlossnagle prepared for a true pitching battle vs. Holy Cross in Regional
With the win over the Gauchos, Texas advanced to the Super Regionals for the first time since 2023. The last time they were in the CWS was just one year earlier, where the Horns finished third, falling just short of advancing to the final series.
Texas's win over UCSB, which was highlighted by a starting pitching performance from Ruger Riojas and a home run from veteran outfielder Aiden Robbins, who also hit HRs in the Longhorns' two previous Regional matchups.
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