Game 12: Long balls lift Longhorns

A Texas offense that has lacked explosiveness at times this season picked the right spot Friday night to go boom, boom.

Cameron Rupp and Connor Rowe hit home runs five pitches apart in the bottom of the ninth inning to rally the Longhorns to a 4-3 College World Series victory over Arizona State and send Texas into next week’s best-of-three championship finals.

The Sun Devils had taken a 3-2 lead in the top of the ninth before Rupp tied the game with a monstrous shot over the 22-foot-high batter’s eye in center field. After Arizona State pitcher Mitchell Lambson got Preston Clark to foul out, Rowe rocketed the next pitch into the left-field bleachers.

Texas coach Augie Garrido needed just four words to sum up what everyone in the crowd of 23,257 at Rosenblatt Stadium witnessed.

“Wow, what a game,’’ Garrido said.

Rowe’s homer, the first walk-off blast at the CWS since Texas’ Chance Wheeless beat Baylor with one in 2005, completed the Longhorns unbeaten run through Bracket Two. Texas will take a 49-14-1 record into the best-of-three finals series against Louisiana State that begins Monday.

The Longhorns won their opening game against Southern Mississippi on a walk-off walk and then stung Arizona State on Tuesday by scoring 10 straight runs to erase a 6-0 deficit after three innings.

The Sun Devils were three outs Friday from forcing a third meeting between the teams after freshman Zach Wilson drove in his first run since May 10 with a two-out triple in the top of the ninth. Lambson, who had breezed through the seventh and eighth innings, struck out Brandon Loy to open the Texas ninth.

Rupp, who homered twice in Tuesday’s win, tied the game when he drove a 3-1 pitch from Lambson over the center-field wall for his 11th homer of the season.

“I knew it was gone when I hit it,’’ he said.

So did Rowe. “That ball was crushed.’’

Lambson, a freshman left-hander, recovered to get a second out, but Rowe made sure that he didn’t get a third.

“I’ve faced him three times now, and every time he kept throwing me change-up, change-up, change-up,’’ Rowe said. “I don’t think I saw one fastball from him. I was definitely sitting on a change-up, and that’s what I got.’’

Arizona State left fielder Kole Calhoun made a futile effort to snare Rowe’s drive before it found the bleachers. Rowe sprinted around the bases, batting helmet raised in his right hand, before being swarmed under by jubilant teammates once he crossed home plate.

“That was a tough one,’’ Arizona State coach Pat Murphy said. “All credit goes to Texas. They did a wonderful job of hitting in the clutch there at the end.’’

Until Rupp and Rowe connected, it appeared that Wilson was destined to be an unlikely hero. The Sun Devils opened the ninth inning by getting Jason Kipnis to second when he singled off first baseman Brandon Belt’s glove and advanced when second baseman Travis Tucker threw wildly after tracking down the ricochet.

Carlos Ramirez followed with a laser to left field that Preston Clark managed to snare for the first out. Winning pitcher Austin Wood (6-1) struck out Kole Calhoun for the second out, but Wilson, in just his 80th at-bat of the season, produced a run-scoring triple down the right-field line.

“He’s a kid we’ve been counting on all year who really didn’t have the kind of freshman year we’d like for him to have,’’ Murphy said. “But he came through.’’
Wood kept the deficit at a run when he got Riccio Torrez to line out to Tucker.

Texas starter Cole Green also did an excellent job of minimizing the damage when Arizona State scored in the third and fourth innings. Green left runners at second and third after Calhoun’s RBI single in the third inning by striking out Johnny Ruettiger and getting Jared McDonald to ground out.

After Drew Maggi’s single put Arizona State ahead 2-1 in the fourth, Green got Kipnis, the Sun Devils’ best hitter, to ground out.

Arizona State ace Mike Leake, pitching on two days’ rest, battled through six innings before turning the game over to Lambson. Leake gave up eight hits, the most damaging being Michael Torres’ fifth homer that produced a 1-1 tie in the third and Tucker’s RBI single in the fifth.

The two homers were the only hits Lambson allowed.

“We were a little upset,’’ said Rupp, describing the mood in the Longhorns’ dugout before they hit in the ninth. “We always talk about picking each other up and that’s what we’ve done all year. That’s what we take pride in.’’

Texas now can start preparing for the final series instead of having to worry about surviving another game against the Sun Devils. For the first time since the NCAA went to the present CWS format in 2003, both winners of the double-elimination portion of the tournament advanced unbeaten.

“It would have given LSU a tremendous advantage if we would have had to play another game,’’ Garrido said. “They’ve done a great job in the tournament, and if we would have had to stretch this out and play tomorrow’s game, it would have weakened us considerably.’’

Game 12 Box Score

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679-2298, steve.pivovar@owh.com