Texas returns to CWS with victory over TCU

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At a place like the University of Texas, four years between trips to the College World Series can feel like forever.

The long wait is over. The Longhorns are going back to Omaha, Neb.

Freshman Taylor Jungmann allowed two hits over six innings Monday night and top-seeded Texas earned its first trip to the College World Series since 2005 with a 5-2 win over TCU.

"The season starts now, man," said Texas coach Augie Garrido, who has won five national titles, including two with Texas in 2002 and 2005. "The race is on."

Texas, which earned its record 33rd trip to the CWS, has won six national championships. With that kind of history, not getting there from 2006-08 was a test of patience for players who understand that anything less is considered a failure.

The last time Texas (46-14-1) went four years between CWS appearances was 1994-99.

Garrido gave the ball to his tall 19-year-old right-hander to steer the return trip. Jungmann struck out five and walked one in picking up his eighth win of the season before being replaced by Austin Wood in the bottom of the seventh.

"No fear," Jungmann said. "You have to go out there with confidence."

Jungmann also had big early run support. For a team built on pitching and defense, Texas showed some surprising power at the plate.

Texas led 3-0 after the first inning behind an RBI triple by Brandon Belt and a solo home run by Kevin Keyes.

Michael Torres opened the first with a single and scored when Belt smashed a long shot to deep center that hit the wall near the 400-foot marker. Belt scored on a fielder's choice before Keyes blasted his seventh home run of the season. Horned Frogs left fielder Jason Coats knew the ball was gone as soon as it left the bat and hardly moved from his spot as he watched it clear the wall.

"I know if I hit it hard, it's going to go," Keyes said.

The Longhorns scored two more in the fourth with a double by Keyes and another by Cameron Rupp off Horned Frogs reliever Eric Marshall.

Wood, who pitched 12 1/3 scoreless innings in relief in Texas' 25-inning 3-2 win over Boston College a week earlier, came in with a 5-0 lead and gave up two runs before he was pulled for Chance Ruffin with one out in the ninth.

After allowing a two-out walk in the first, Jungmann retired the next nine TCU batters. He got himself out of his only jam in the sixth inning.

A single and hit batter put two runners on with no outs. But Jungmann got the next two hitters to ground back to the mound. The first he threw to third for the first out of the inning. The second started a double play that ended it.

"He threw all his pitches for strikes," said TCU third baseman Matt Carpenter, who went 0 for 3. "To be able to handle that situation with a chance to go to Omaha in an elimination game and to get that kind of performance out of a freshman is pretty unbelievable."

Tyler Lockwood took the loss for TCU (40-18), which had forced a third game of the Austin Super Regional with a 3-2 win Sunday.

Garrido, who also won three College World Series titles with Cal-State Fullerton before coming to Texas, is the career wins leader in NCAA Division I history. He now leads a team to Omaha that doesn't have any players with CWS experience.

The Longhorns play Southern Mississippi (40-24) on Sunday night.

"We know where the restaurants are," Garrido said. "We'll deal with everything else later."
 
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