Everything You Need to Know About the Austin Super Regional This Weekend
The Texas Longhorns and the Houston Cougars play this afternoon at 3 p.m. in the Austin Super Regional, the start of a three-game series with the winner advancing to the College World Series in Omaha. The teams, though not conference rivals, have both a storied past and a lot in common this year. Here what you need to know about the matchup:
- These teams have played each other 125 times through the years, with Texas leading 92-31-2, including a 43-10 record in Austin. Texas and Houston have played each other once this season, with the Longhorns winning 3-2 on the road. That game was a hard-fought matchup that ended on a nice snag of a potential game-tying line drive by shortstop C.J. Hinojosa in the bottom of the 9th.
- Houston enters the weekend with a 48-16 record, clawing back from a two-game deficit and blowing out national No. 8 LSU in the Baton Rouge Regional final. The Cougars have no reservations about being road underdogs, though Texas coach Augie Garrido said of Houston at Thursday’s press conference: “I think based on the way they came out of LSU, scored a lot of runs, and pulled off a couple miracles back-to-back means [Houston is] hot and confident. At the end of the day, it’s going to be about the unexpected.”
- Houston has won 48 games three times, both years falling in the Super Regional. The last time was in 2002, when Houston fell to … Texas. That year, Texas won its fifth national championship.
- Padres closer Houston Street sees similarities between the 2002 team he pitched on and this year’s Longhorn team: ” I see that in this team in the way they have rallied around each other. They are like we were. They had their backs up against the wall in the regional, very similar to what we had in our regional and super regional against Houston, which is ironic,” Street said.
- This will be a pitchers’ duel all weekend, as both teams are top-10 in ERA. The staffs are separated by less than a tenth of a point, with Houston’s sixth-ranked 2.30 ERA and Texas’ 2.36 good for eighth in the country. Texas lost ace starting pitcher Dillon Peters to an elbow injury before the Houston Regional, but righty sophomore Chad Hollingsworth stepped up in the elimination game against A&M, in a masterful, 2-hit complete game. Oh, and it was his first start as a college player.
- Longhorn CF Mark Payton, Texas’ own Greek God of Walks, now has an OBP of .460 and has reached base in 99 consecutive games, a Big 12 record.
- All games at Disch-Falk field are sold out. This is not a surprise coming off the momentum this Texas team has gained—especially after eliminating Texas A&M in the Houston Regional. That final broke the attendance record at Reckling Park on the Rice campus, with 6,825 screaming fans letting the world know that this rivalry is far from over. Games 2 and 3 (if needed) both have start times of 1 p.m.
Image courtesy Bethany Walter/UT Athletics
