The Texas Longhorns will find themselves in familiar territory at the College World Series next week after their 4-2 victory over Arizona State Sunday night in Austin.
The Longhorns trailed this game for a good portion of the day until the bottom of the 5th inning when a balk by Arizona State pitcher, Mitchell Lambson, scored Brandon Loy and tied the game at 2-2. Loy finished the day 3-4 with a run scored and an RBI to lead the Longhorns.
It was the two runs in the bottom of the 6th inning that led the Longhorns to victory, and ultimately the College World Series appearance. The entire rally began with two outs when leadoff hitter Tant Shepherd blasted a double to deep left field. The next batter Mark Payton, singled him in to give the Longhorns the 3-2 lead. Brandon Loy then doubled to score Payton to extend the lead to 4-2.
It was the top of the order for Texas that did all the damage in this game. Shepherd, Payton, and Loy combined to go 6-11 with all four runs scored and two RBI's to lead the Longhorns.
Texas got five innings of two-hit relief from Nathan Thornhill (1.2), Hoby Milner (2.1) and Corey Knebel (1) to slam the door on any Sun Devil attempt at a rally.
Texas joins Vanderbilt, North Carolina, Florida and South Carolina as teams who have punched their tickets to Omaha to compete for a National Championship.