Texas baseball is two wins away from Omaha. The No. 6 seed Longhorns host No. 11 Oregon in the Super Regionals this weekend with a College World Series bid on the line.
Texas earned the right to host by taking down UC Santa Barbara 6-4 in the regional. Oregon advanced out of their own regional to set up this matchup. The winner heads to the Men’s College World Series in Omaha, starting Friday, June 12.
Texas Has Been Built for This
Jim Schlossnagle’s first year at Texas has gone about as well as anyone could have hoped. The Longhorns have been a top-10 team all season and got the No. 6 national seed for the tournament. Hosting through to Omaha was the plan.
Now Texas has to execute. The pitching staff has been excellent. The lineup has been deep. The defense has been clean. This is the kind of well-rounded team that wins regionals and supers consistently.
Oregon Will Not Make It Easy
The Ducks are dangerous. They have the kind of pitching staff that can give any team trouble in a three-game series. They also have experience playing big games away from home.
This is a coin flip series even with home field advantage going to Texas. Oregon has the talent to take it on the road, and college baseball has been full of upsets all postseason.
The Omaha Stakes
Texas has not won a College World Series in over 20 years. The program has the most championships in NCAA baseball history, but the last title came in 2005. That drought has been a sore subject for a fanbase that expects national title hardware in every sport.
Getting to Omaha is the first step. Hosting the regional and the super was supposed to be the easy part. The real test starts in Omaha, where Texas would face the best of the rest of college baseball.
What Schlossnagle Has Done
Schlossnagle came to Texas after a national championship run at Mississippi State and a long tenure building programs at TCU. He knows how to win in June. The Longhorns hired him specifically to break the title drought.
His first year is going to be measured by what happens in Omaha. Anything less than a College World Series appearance would be a disappointment given the resources and the expectations. Anything more than a CWS appearance would be a triumph.
The Pitching Question
Texas’s chances depend almost entirely on the pitching staff staying fresh and healthy. The Longhorns have used their bullpen heavily through the tournament. Schlossnagle needs his weekend starters to give him quality innings against Oregon so the bullpen can be rested for Omaha.
If the rotation does its job, Texas is heading to Omaha. If the bullpen has to bail out short starts, the series gets dicey.
The Pick
Texas wins the series in two games. Home field, depth, and the chip on the shoulder of an entire fan base get the Longhorns through. Texas takes Game 1 by three or four runs and closes it out Saturday with a tighter win.
Omaha is calling. The road there runs through Austin first.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
