Courtesy of Texas Media Relations
The Texas Longhorns and Arizona State Sun Devils faced off in the nightcap on Day 4 of the College World Series. The Longhorns entered with a 47-14-1 record while the Sun Devils have a 50-12 record. Both teams entered the game with 1-0 records in the College World Series with Texas picking up a 7-6 win over Southern Miss while Arizona State defeated North Carolina 5-2 in ten innings. Each squad would send their ace to the hill with Texas throwing Chance Ruffin who is 10-2 with a 3.02 ERA in 22 appearance (16 starts) while Arizona State put Mike Leake to the hill with a 16-1 record and an ERA of 1.36 in 17 appearances (16 starts).
Texas would get a leadoff double followed by a walk in the first inning but would not be able to scratch across any runs as Brandon Belt struck out and Russell Moldenhauer hit into a double play. Arizona State would get a one out single by Jason Kipnis who got thrown out at second when Carlos Ramirez struck out.
Texas would get two runners on in the second inning too but against would fail to get any runs home as Preston Clark and Connor Rowe would strike out swinging. Kole Calhoun would led the bottom of the second with a home run to left field. After a Johnny Ruetigger strikeout, Matt Newman and Raoul Torrez would get back to back singles. Both players would move up on a passed ball which put them in scoring position for a Jared McDonald 2 RBI single which gave the Sun Devils the 3-0 lead.
Leake would give up a one out single in the top of the third inning but would work around out to keep the Longhorns scoreless. Carlos Ramirez would lead off the inning by taking a Chance Ruffin fastball over the left field fence to give the Sun Devils the 4-0 lead. The Sun Devils would not get another hit in the inning but would take advantage of four walks and two errors by Texas to score two more runs. The key play was a first and third situation where UT catcher Cameron Rupp would try to throw out Matt Newman but no one was covering second base so Johnny Ruetigeer could score from third and Newman move up to third as the throw got away. After the third inning, ASU led 6-0.
After the inning was over, Texas head coach Augie Garrido pulled his team together and told them according to Cameron Rupp the following “Coach called us in and told us that we could do it. We had to compete and go play by play. We put everything behind us and moved on. He stayed calm; he just told us to put it all behind us.”
Texas would take Coach Garrido’s advice and come right back in the top of the fourth inning when Kevin Keyes led off with a single which was followed by Brandon Loy getting hit by a pitch. Cameron Rupp would then take a 2-0 fastball over the right field wall to cut the Sun Devils lead in half at 6-3. Preston Clark would follow with a single. Connor Rowe then would get another single. Michael Torres would follow with a groundball to second base where they would get Rowe out at second while Clark advanced to third. Travis Tucker would follow with a sacrifice bunt up the first base line that would be thrown away allowing Clark to score and put runners at second and third. Brandon Belt would tie the game with a single through the right side of the infield to tie up the game.
The score would stay tied until the seventh inning when Cameron Rupp would hit his second home run of the game over the right field fence to complete the comeback and give the Longhorns the 7-6 lead. Arizona State would complete the inning without letting up anymore runs.
Texas bats would come alive again in the eighth inning with a lead off walk to Travis Tucker. Brandon Belt would move him over to second with a sacrifice bunt. Kevin Lusson would pinch hit and get a walk to put runners on first and second. Kevin Keyes would follow with a double to right center field to score the two runners on base. Kyle Lusson would pinch run for Keyes and end up scoring on a Brandon Loy single and give the Longhorns the 10-6 lead.
ASU and Texas would not get anymore runs as Texas grabs the 10-6 victory. Taylor Jungmann picked up the victory by going 5.2 innings of shutout relief by giving up two hits and a walk while settling down the Texas pitching staff. Jungmann’s record improves to 10-3. Arizona State’s Mitchell Lambson picked up the loss after going 3.1 innings while giving up two runs. His record drops to 9-4.
MCWS GAME 8 NOTES
*-Tonight marks the first time in MCWS history that three sons of former MCWS players on are the field. The current players are Texas’ Chance Ruffin (Bruce, 1985) and Brandon Loy (Darren, 1983-84) and Arizona State’s Matt Newman (Randy, 1981). All three fathers played for the same team at the MCWS. There have been 10 father/son combinations to play in the MCWS (complete list is on page 117 of the MCWS guide. The only other time multiple sons of MCWS players appeared in the MCWS was in 1988 (Wichita State’s David Haas and Jeff Bonacquista).
*-Tonight’s game took 4:04, making it the fourth-longest nine-inning game in MCWS history (complete list on page 91 of MCWS book).
*-17 of the last 19 champions have opened MCWS play with a 2-0 record (only Southern California in 1998 and Oregon State in 2006 lost their first game in that stretch).
*-With Arizona State’s loss tonight, LSU is the last remaining unbeaten team in the 2009 NCAA Tournament.
*-The winner of Bracket 2 has won every MCWS since 2000.
Texas
*-Texas is 2-0 in the MCWS for the 12th time in program history and the fourth time in their last five MCWS appearances. Four of UT’s previous five national titles have come after the Longhorns opened MCWS play with a 2-0 mark.
*-With tonight’s win, the Longhorns have won their last seven games at the MCWS dating back to their 2005 national championship. Texas and Oregon State now hold the longest-active MCWS win streaks at seven apiece.
*-The six-run deficit against Arizona State marks the largest deficit the Longhorns have overcome all season. Prior to tonight, the largest deficit UT overcame was four runs against Army on May 31 (UT trailed 10-6, won 14-10).
*-The six-run deficit ties for the seventh-largest deficit overcome in a MCWS game. The only time Texas overcame a deficit larger than six runs in the MCWS came on June 10, 1972, when Texas trailed 8-0 in the seventh before coming back to win 9-8.
*-The Longhorns improved to 80-53 all-time at the MCWS, as UT leads all programs in MCWS in wins (80) and games played (133).
*-Texas is now 26-18 all-time against Arizona State, including a 5-2 advantage at the MCWS. Tonight’s matchup between the teams was the first at the MCWS since 1984.
*-Augie Garrido collected his 36th MCWS win on Tuesday, matching Arizona State’s Jim Brock and Stanford’s Mark Marquess for third place all-time. His .692 winning percentage now ranks fourth all-time (complete top five is on page 174 of MCWS record book).
*-The two homers by Cameron Rupp marked his first career two-homer game. It is also the third two-homer game by a Longhorn this season (Michael Torres vs. TCU on June 6; Connor Rowe at Oklahoma State on April 3).
*-Chance Ruffin lasted a season-low 2.0 innings against Arizona State. His previous low was 4.0 in a pre-determined start against Alabama A&M on May 17, and tonight’s start was the shortest of his career (27 starts). The six runs Ruffin allowed is also a season high.
*-Texas now has 100 sacrifice bunts on the season, marking only the fifth time a team has had 100 sacrifices on the year. UT has recorded 100 or more sacrifices three times in school history (also 126 in 2000 and 116 in 2005). Both the previous year UT had 100 or more sacrifices, the Longhorns won a national title.
*-Tonight is the 10th time that Texas has scored 10 or more runs in a game this season, as the Longhorns are 10-0 in games where they reach double digits.
*-This is the first time all season UT has surrendered six or more runs in consecutive games all season. The Longhorns have not allowed five or more runs in three straight games all season.
*-Texas is now 31-1-1 when scoring six or more runs in a game and 41-0-1 when leading after six innings this season.
*-It marked just the 12th time the Longhorns, who are second nationally in ERA, allowed six or more runs in a game, going 7-4-1 in those contests.
*-Taylor Jungmann is now 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA in the MCWS, allowing three hits over 6.1 innings of work in relief.
Arizona State
*-Arizona State sees its seven-game win streak snapped tonight. The Sun Devils had won 17 of their last 18 games before Tuesday night.
*-The 10 runs allowed by Arizona State matches a season-high set five previous times, most recently against UCLA on May 23. ASU is now 1-5 when allowing an opponent to reach double figures in runs.
*-The six runs allowed by the Sun Devils in the fourth inning was the most runs ASU had allowed in an inning this season.
*-Mike Leake’s 3.1-inning stint is the shortest start of the season (17 starts). Leake had gone seven or more innings in his last 15 starts dating back to Feb. 26. The eight hits and six runs allowed were both season highs, as Leake had not allowed more than four runs in any start this season.
*-Leake, who leads the country in wins (16) and innings (136.0) raised his ERA from 1.36 to 1.65, which is now second nationally (Stephen Strasburg, San Diego State 1.32).
*-Cole Calhoun is hitting .444 (4-for-9) with two homers and six RBIs in the MCWS has an eight-game hit streak. He is hitting .400 (12-for-30) with two homers and 13 RBIs in the NCAA Regional.
*-With the loss, Arizona State falls to 60-35 in its 21 MCWS appearances. The Sun Devils are third in wins and games played at the MCWS.
*-Arizona State is now 23-12 this season when a starter does not reach the seventh inning.
