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Texas wins Coral Gables Regional with a 10-6 victory over Miami

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By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Replay

Trailing by three runs early, the Texas Longhorns scored nine in the third inning and went on to claim the NCAA Coral Gables Regional title with a 10-6 victory over the Miami Hurricanes.

The Longhorns erupted for nine runs on seven hits in the third. San Antonio’s Jalin Flores capped the outburst with a grand slam over the center field wall. Flores is a UT freshman from Brandeis High School.

Texas won the regional by winning three games in three days at the home of the Hurricanes. On Friday, they downed the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns, 4-2. On Saturday, they rode the pitching of Lebarron Johnson Jr. to a 4-1 victory over Miami, sending the Hurricanes into the losers bracket.

After downing Louisiana 8-5 on Sunday morning, Miami advanced to the finals, where it would need two victories over Texas to win the title. UT didn’t let that happen even though at times, the pitching was shaky. Starter Tanner Witt gave up an early three-run homer and was lifted after two innings.

In the third, UT went on an extended offensive run. Big hits early in the uprising including an RBI double by Jared Thomas and a two-run single by Peyton Powell. Later, Garret Guillemette stroked a two-run double. At that point, Miami reliever Carlos Lequerica walked two batters to load the bases.

Flores, the next man up, sized up the first pitch from Lequerica and sent it over the wall for his fourth home run of the season. The blow energized the UT dugout and gave the Longhorns a 9-3 lead.

With the lead, Longhorns reliever Charlie Hurley kept the Hurricanes in check until Yohandy Morales smacked a three-run homer in the seventh inning. The blow trimmed UT’s lead to 10-6. Closer Zane Morehouse entered in the seventh to finish out the game, pitching 2 and 2/3 scoreless while striking out seven.

Next week, Texas (41-20) will play in the Super Regional round of the NCAA tournament against either longtime rival Texas A&M or national No. 8 seed Stanford. A&M and Stanford were playing late Sunday in the finals of the Stanford Regional. A&M can claim the regional title with one victory. Stanford needs to win twice to claim the title.

Johnson’s complete game keeps Texas undefeated at the Coral Gables Regional

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By Jerry Briggs
For The JB Replay

Texas Longhorns pitcher Lebarron Johnson Jr. barely could find the words to describe what it felt like to throw a complete game in the NCAA tournament. To fire a season-high 129 pitches and to beat the national No. 9-seeded Miami Hurricanes, 4-1, on their home field.

“It was surreal, honestly,” Johnson, a redshirt sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., told ESPN. “I just knew I had to keep going for my team, for my pen, for my offense. I just tried to dig deep. I thank the Lord for allowing me to get through it.”

The Longhorns, likewise, are thanking Johnson for a sterling performance that allowed them to improve to 2-0 in the NCAA Coral Gables Regional.

With the win, they’ll play Sunday night for the regional title. In the first game Sunday, the Hurricanes will face the Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns in a battle of once-beaten teams. The loser will be eliminated, while the winner will move into the title round against the Longhorns.

Texas’ opponent will need to win Sunday night and again on Monday to claim the regional title. Meaning, of course, that the Longhorns like their chances of playing next week in the Super Regional round.

In the aftermath of the victory, Johnson spoke to ESPN television broadcasters on the field, still wide-eyed about what he had done.

“It’s surreal, honestly,” he said. “I’m still trying to process this.”

In completing nine innings, he allowed seven hits, one earned run and walked three while striking out eight. In one stretch, from the fourth through the seventh innings, he retired 11 straight. Johnson, who improved to 8-3 on the season, said Texas coach David Pierce approached him after the eighth inning to ask him how he felt.

“He came to me,” Johnsons said. “He said, ‘Do you want it? I said, ‘Yes, sir. I’ll try my best.’ ”

To start the game, the Longhorns jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Dylan Campbell supplied the fireworks with a two-run homer.

Johnson, in turn, endured a rough go of it. He loaded the bases on a walk, a single and another walk. Luckily for him, the Hurricanes couldn’t get anything out of it.

“I had to get my nerves out of the way, honestly,” he said. “I was nervous coming in, with the rain delay and all that. I just knew that I had to trust my work. Trust my coaches. Trust my ability to go out there and do my job. I just had to pull through for my team.”

The Longhorns added single runs in the second and third, pushing out to a 4-0 lead. San Antonio’s Jalin Flores, a freshman from Brandeis, figured in the scoring with an RBI single in the third.

In the bottom of the fourth, the Hurricanes finally broke through. Dominic Pitelli led off with a solo home run. That, however, is all that they would get the rest of the way.

The Hurricanes threatened in the eighth and ninth, but came up empty each time.

Statistics would indicate that Johnson might have been building toward something like this for the past six weeks. In his last six starts, he threw 91, 85, 112, 83, 101 and 95 pitches. So, it wasn’t totally surprising to see coaches let him go out for the last inning.

“I’m from Florida, so I’m kind of used to this (heat) a little bit,” he said. “The tiredness kicked in a little bit. But I just knew I needed to dig deep … execute pitches and trust my team.”